


Standing By

by youmakemyheartgosuperwhee



Category: Glee
Genre: (Sebastian's the spawn of satan pretty much), Gen, Hogwarts, Hogwarts!Glee, M/M, hogwarts!Klaine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-10 05:34:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 49,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5572813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youmakemyheartgosuperwhee/pseuds/youmakemyheartgosuperwhee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He looked down from the stands of the Quidditch stadium to see the sixth year Hufflepuff, Quidditch mastermind and captain of the Badgers' house team Blaine Anderson sitting on the freshly cut grass, accompanied by his ridiculously expensive custom made broomstick.</p><p>And, not that it was important at all, the boy Kurt Hummel, the sixth year Slytherin and the seeker of the Slytherin house team, had secretly had a crush on for over two years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As I've become completely obsessed with crossover stories of Harry Potter and Glee, I decided to try writing one of those myself.  
> The thing is, my first thought was to write a pretty simple one shot, but whilst writing this so many different possibilities for this to be a longer, multi-chapter story came to me that I'm not sure now. So I'm asking you to help me out a little bit; Do I continue this or not? Chances are I'm writing more of this as you read this, but I would still really want to know if you would read this further. :) 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

A loud thump and a pained voice was all it took to startle Kurt and make him return to earth from his daydreams. He looked down from the stands of the Quidditch stadium to see the sixth year Hufflepuff, Quidditch mastermind and captain of the Badgers' house team Blaine Anderson sitting on the freshly cut grass, accompanied by his ridiculously expensive custom made broomstick.

And, not that it was important at all, the boy Kurt Hummel, the sixth year Slytherin and the seeker of the Slytherin house team, had secretly had a crush on for over two years.

Well, he had secretly had a crush on him for a year. The last year Santana, the only Slytherin he could actually call somewhat a friend of his, found out and hadn’t hesitated reminding him of that every chance she got ever since.

If anyone else from Kurt's house knew that he was lusting over a Hufflepuff though, he would have already been publicly scolded for it.

Now, having the dark haired boy sitting on the field holding his knee with a miserable expression framing his features, a part of him wanted to run down and help him all he could.  
The other highly more rational part of him just wanted to vanish from the scene and leave his rival there to figure out his issues on his own.

"God dammit." Kurt muttered under his breath, cursing the boy in his mind for being as gorgeous as he was, as he briskly walked down the wooden stairs that were making incredibly loud cracking noises under his feet all the way down.

The boy in the canary yellow robe didn't seem to hear the sound. He was rubbing circles around his left knee with his teeth gritted and brows furrowed.

"Your pride got hurt, Anderson?" Was the first thing to escape the Slytherin's mouth when he was in hearing distance of Blaine.

Blaine sighed, clearly biting his tongue before turning to look at Kurt, who was mentally slapping himself square in the face.

You couldn't have been any ruder, could you? He thought to himself, trying his hardest not to show his inner shenanigans to the Hufflepuff Quidditch captain.

"Thank you for showing your concern, Hummel - But no, I did not hurt my pride. However, I bet your teammates seeing you in here with me would hurt yours." He said, slicking back his neatly gelled down hair.

Kurt just shook his head, dismissing the comment and watching as the boy tried to get up from the grass on only one foot. 

"That looks like it's going to cost you the other knee, as well." He said, walking behind Blaine to support him by wrapping his arms around his waist. Without listening to whatever complaints the shorter boy surely had about the help, he helped him up. 

"Thank you." Blaine said quietly, dusting off his robe and white pants that were surely grass stained. He sounded defeated, which was ridiculous and made Kurt's chest ache from what he convinced himself was Blaine leaning on that exact part of his body very lightly. 

"No need. There should be a first aid kit in the dressing rooms." Kurt said, switching the placing of his arms from Blaine's waist alone to having one on his waist and one around his shoulder. He stepped next to him and started to walk him towards the boys' dressing room. 

"Wait. Should be?" 

"Sebastian has more and less purposefully been pushed off of his broom and got hit by a quaffle so many times in matches and training that they might've run out of first aid equipment in the dressing rooms. We'll find out."

Blaine chuckled, knowing that he maybe shouldn't have. 

"It's hilarious how he thinks so highly of himself that he just assumes everyone else does so too when in reality every soul in this school despises him" Kurt said, answering a question Blaine would surely have asked if he wasn't the kindest, most considerate human being on the face of the earth - and a Hufflepuff.

"You too?" The Hufflepuff asked, equal bits amused and confused. 

"I mean, he's the captain of our Quidditch team, so I can't really talk too much crap about him behind his back-" He said, waiting for Blaine to open the dressing room door when they finally reached there. "But feel free to ask Santana for the list of nicknames we have come up with for him." 

Kurt watched Blaine wince at the contact of his hurt knee and the bench closest to the door. He breathed in sharp through his nose before sitting down with the help of Kurt's supporting arms.

"Careful." Kurt said quietly, watching Blaine struggle with placing his knee on the bench next to him because of the discomfort, and surprising himself as well as Blaine with that. 

The Hufflepuff looked up to the taller boy, who blushed a light pink. 

"Ah, yeah- uhm, the first aid kit" He struggled to find his words like he was speaking for the first time in years and sprinted out the wide space to the bathroom where he could only assume they had last left the first aid equipment. 

Blaine ducked his head and bit his lower lip to keep from smiling.  
He had no reason for that - besides the fact that the boy from Slytherin he had been hopelessly crushing on for several years was suddenly helping him with his almost as sudden Quidditch related injury. 

A few minutes later Kurt emerged from the bathroom with the unnecessarily bright red first aid kit. 

"I could've just used magic" Blaine quietly protested when Kurt sat by him, a bandage and a tube of ice gel in hand. 

Kurt shot him a somewhat cold, somewhat compassionate look. "Really? Where's your wand?" 

Blaine leaned forward ever so slightly to reach the side of his boot he usually kept his wand in. It wasn't there - Oh, right. 

"They ban. I totally forgot." 

"Yeah. And besides, you will go to the Hospital Wing right after this. They will actually heal it. This is just until then, so that you can make it there" Kurt said, and again, only noticing what he had said afterwards with Blaine’s sparkling eyes on him. 

His mouth and brain clearly weren't on the same page. Get it together now Hummel, he scolded himself.

"Slytherin is playing Hufflepuff in two weeks. You're the Hufflepuff captain and there would be a motive for me, as a player of Slytherin, to just leave you here with your injury and that way make sure you can't play. However, it wouldn't be as much fun to win if your team wasn't in their best condition, their leader included" Kurt said, wanting to pat himself on the back for such high class reasoning. Only he was trying to convincingly explain that to himself just as much as he was trying to explain it to Blaine. 

"Sure" The Hufflepuff said, not paying much attention to Kurt and seemingly more to the pain in his knee as he rolled the white pants that belonged to the Quidditch uniform up to above his knee. 

Kurt squeezed some of the bright blue gel out of the ice gel tube and glanced at Blaine, who had his both hands covering his face. 

"This can sting a little bit, but I swear it feels better after a few minutes" He said softly and started spreading the gel on the area Blaine had injured. 

The second his fingertips touched the olive skin of his knee, he felt like a zooful of butterflies entered his stomach. 

He told himself countless of times to stop and to act like a rational human being, and that the tingling feeling on his fingertips had nothing to do with Blaine but the icy cold gel. That was no help, though. "I can't tell you how many times I have had to rely on this stuff" The Slytherin said just for the sake of saying something.  
He spread the last bit of gel from his fingers on the back of Blaine's knee just in case and once done with the task, he shot up from the bench beside the boy and went to wash his hands off of the gel without a word. 

Blaine let out a much deeper breath than what he had registered holding in with Kurt no longer in the room.  
It made absolutely no sense. He was fairly sure that he had mostly gotten over his crush, and now he felt like he hadn't felt so strongly towards the boy from Slytherin ever. He had had the biggest case of heart eyes for him for two years and they'd been enemies on the field for twice as long, meaning that there weren’t all that many things on the range of emotions he hadn’t felt towards Kurt Hummel. And some of those things, he'd thought, were in the past, but no. Clearly the universe wanted to see him suffer. 

You have to stop that, he told himself. You are overreacting. Surely it’s just the pain – The pain’s making you irrational. 

Kurt came back with the bandage and Blaine tried to actively ignore both Kurt and the persistent stinging of his knee, but all that went out the window when Kurt effortlessly tied the piece of fabric around his knee in a few seconds. 

Blaine looked at him with wide eyes. 

"My stepmother's a nurse" Kurt explained hurriedly, tossing the rest of the bandage back in the box and returning it to it’s place. 

Blaine touched the slightly worn off bandage around his knee, wincing, but not as hard as before it was there. 

"Thank you" The Hufflepuff said so genuinely it managed to tie Kurt's stomach up in knots and made his heart flutter so much it felt like it could just fly right out of his chest. 

He cleared his throat and nodded, unable to help smiling a little. "Still no need. I'll walk you to the castle." 

"Yeah" Blaine said, much more breathless than intended. “Okay.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the second part of Standing By, really meaning that I did turn this from a one shot into an actual story! Yay. Thank you for helping me, too. :)  
> A few things:  
> \- Blaine's knee injury came from my own knee injury, so again, I kind of managed to slip a little bit of therapy into my writing. My knee, however, does not have a fracture, only a muscle mess up.  
> \- This is very much gravitating towards Blaine's POV, but the next chapter will start off with Kurt's, so no worries  
> \- I do not know the exact amount of chapters there will be, but there will be quite a few 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Walking just on plain land and with help turned out to be far more challenging than Blaine expected. It almost felt like the rocks at his feet were laughing at him for his trouble. 

He found himself leaning on Kurt more than supporting his own weight himself, and he just prayed he would make it to the Hospital Wing without a) falling, b) being seen by too many students and c) many students witnessing him falling on Kurt. 

"I- uhm." Blaine began, only to be silenced by a sensation that felt very much like someone was stabbing his knee. Kurt turned to look at him with a worried expression on his face. Blaine gritted his teeth and shook his head, to which Kurt responded by stopping. 

"No, let's- You don't need to stop."

"Are you okay?" Kurt asked pointedly, not taking his eyes off of the boy who was clearly trying to avoid his gaze. 

The Hufflepuff bit his tongue and nodded with his eyes on the muddy, rocky path they were walking on. 

"That's what I was going to ask you. I'm not exactly the lightest person-"

Kurt scoffed, taking a quick second to look around them to see how many people were present. Not many, and well, reasonably so - It was only ten in the morning on a Saturday.  
"I'd really appreciate it if you kept your mouth shut, Blaine" The Slytherin said, but with no heat to it. Quite on the contrary, the words left the boy's mouth softly and kindly. He tightened his grip on Blaine's waist and hoped it helped him even a little bit. 

-

Sure enough, ten minutes later they made it to the Hospital Wing and were greeted by the kind features of Mrs. Pillsbury's face. She did raise her neatly done eyebrows a little bit at the sight of the two boys so close together, but Blaine's bandaged knee took her attention off of that very quickly. 

To both Mrs. Pillsbury's and Blaine's - but mostly Blaine's, surprise Kurt didn't let go of Blaine yet then. He pulled Blaine forward by his waist lightly and led him to the closest bed that was located in front of the massive windows with a view to the front yard. 

"I'll go get what I think I need to heal that, alright? Just a second" Mrs. Pillsbury smiled kindly and squeezed his shoulder, disappearing to the smaller room that was basically a massive potion cabinet. 

Blaine nodded when his brain finally caught up with what she'd said and sat on the edge of the bed, looking up at Kurt. His heart was racing, and he couldn't decide if it was because he had just walked up the massive stairs or just simply because of Kurt.  
They were surely the stairs, right?

The Hufflepuff took a deep breath, managing to let out a shuddering laugh. "I- Thank you. You really didn't need to." 

Kurt did exactly what he had before. Shaking his head, he smiled halfheartedly. "I already told you. I had my motives."  
Yeah, having a hopeless crush on you, he could hear a voice in his head say. 

"Besides, Slytherin doesn't equal no morals." 

Blaine rolled his eyes, making Kurt chuckle. 

"Fair enough. Sometimes it does." 

Blaine just nodded, really not knowing what else to do. 

Kurt took a look at the clock on the wall and cleared his throat. He really wished he could've had an excuse to spend more time with Blaine, even if it was just him standing by him there. Only he really couldn’t; not physically, at least. On mental level it wasn’t in his hands – he would be stuck thinking about him, even more than before, whether he wanted it or not. 

“I have, uhm, Quidditch practice in an hour. Got to get ready to make sure we completely trash you next week” He said, grinning, but maybe not as convincingly as he would've liked. 

“Yeah, good luck with that. I’m planning on having a recovered knee by then. We live in a world of magic, after all” Blaine answered, with a grin almost identical to the other boy’s. 

Though he could’ve had Kurt there for the entire day, he was starting to feel uneasy with his knee and Mrs. Pillsbury being away for so long. 

“I guess I’ll see you around. In class, at least” Kurt said after a short while that quite honestly felt like fifteen minutes to Blaine. 

However long they’d been quiet, Kurt’s words startled Blaine a little. Right, they shared Transfiguration. 

“Yeah” Blaine agreed, smiling. “See you.” 

Kurt turned to walk away the exact minute Mrs. Pillsbury emerged from the walk in potion cabinet with her hands full of bottles and bandages.

She helped him get his leg on the bed, which after a few moments of unbelievable discomfort and inappropriate use of words they managed just fine. 

She asked Blaine questions about how he’d got hurt and how bad did it felt while she untied the bandage and examined his knee. 

“It looks like it’s the Vastus Medialis that’s teared in your knee. But the knee cap looks to be fractured, as well” She said thoughtfully. 

“O-kay. And it can be healed here and now?”

“Oh, of course it can, silly. The fracture goes with magic, and the muscle tear should go away with ice gel and the support of a bandage in a couple of days.”

Blaine let out a relieved sigh and nodded thankfully. 

“So, the fracture…” She said after a while, setting her hazel wand lightly on Blaine’s knee. “This might not feel very nice, but I guarantee you it only lasts for a couple of seconds.” 

The Hufflepuff moved his fingers away from around the lower part of his knee and formed fists with both of his hands. 

“Ferula” Mrs. Pillsbury said, loud and clear, tapping the tingling skin of Blaine’s knee with the tip of the wand.

Blaine breathed in deep through his nose, the spell making him feel like instead of a tiny fracture she was dealing with an entire bone sticking out of his leg. Once the feeling passed, he noticed he didn’t need to be biting his tongue anymore to bear the pain. There only really was a minimal amount of discomfort left.

“All good? Feel better?” Mrs. Pillsbury asked, putting her wand back into the pocket of her white skirt. 

“Much. Thank you” The boy breathed, tapping the nastily bruising knee of his lightly with his index finger. 

“Good” She tucked a pillow under his knee before he had the chance to hop off the bed and tied a new bandage around it. After that, she looked up to him and smiled. 

“You are free to go now, Mr. Anderson” She announced chipperly. 

Blaine managed to get up from the bed almost painlessly and headed out of the wing giving his thanks to Mrs. Pillsbury on his way. 

-

The second Blaine walked through the door into the Hufflepuff common room, he was faced by Sam who was still in his pyjamas. 

“Dude! It’s almost twelve! You left like, five hours ago!” 

Blaine rubbed his temples, shaking his head. 

“Sam, stop yelling- And that was four hours ago.” 

“You- What happened to your knee?” Sam’s eyes grew twice in size and his hands flew up to cover his mouth. 

The shorter boy sat down on the worn out, light yellow couch and rolled down the pants of his Quidditch uniform. 

“Nothing happened. Everything’s fine.” 

Sam rolled his eyes and groaned loudly, sitting down next to him with a thump. 

“Buddy, you’re still wearing your Quidditch stuff. And you have a bandage on your knee. And you were practicing for four hours. I may be an idiot, but I’m not stupid. Nor am I blind, Blaine.” 

“Okay, detective Evans” He ducked his head, chuckling very weakly. “I fell. I fell and I fractured my knee cap and teared a muscle.”

“Oh my god!” Sam didn’t really care about Blaine’s quest to not yell, and caused several younger Hufflepuffs around the room to turn to look at them with wide eyes. “We are playing next week, Blaine! You are our captain, how-“ 

Blaine threw his head back against the back of the couch. It was his turn to groan in frustration. 

“Sam, I can play. Mrs. Pillsbury handled it and I will be fine for the game. I’m not exactly fine right now, but I will be next week” He lifted his head back up and smiled at Sam. “And before you yell again, yes I’m sure.” 

Just when Blaine was about to ask him to help him get up to the boys’ dormitory, Sam opened his mouth. 

“How did you get to the Hospital Wing?” 

Blaine looked at Sam quickly before turning to look at his hands on his lap. He bit his lower lip, not realizing he was doing that, and that was all it took for Sam to get an answer to his question. They had been best friends for long enough - and clearly way too long. 

“O- It was Kurt. What was he doing there?” Sam grinned coyly, bumping their shoulders together. 

“Sam, shut up” Blaine whispered, not really wholeheartedly, getting up from the couch. 

Sam got up at the same time, grabbing Blaine’s shoulder. “Spill. What happened?” 

He helped him get up the stairs, and when they reached the dormitory, Blaine turned to look at Sam. 

“Judging by the way you’re blushing right now I absolutely do need to know what happened. Dude, come on!” 

“You sound like Rachel, Sam.” Blaine laughed, tossing a pillow from his bed towards him. Sam caught it effortlessly. 

“Take it easy now, okay.” 

Blaine couldn’t help smiling at that. Sam was kind of like a really tolerable big brother he never had. He only got a remotely, occasionally tolerable big brother, whom he did obviously love as well. But Sam was very different He was there for him always. 

“Yeah.” He settled on his bed, the injured leg laying on a mountain of pillows stacked on top of each other. 

“I can’t believe you finally talked to him! After all these years of you lusting over him. I’m so happy for you, dude.” Sam said, genuinely enthusiastic after a couple of blissfully quiet minutes. 

Blaine raised his brows at him, slightly offended. “We have talked before, Mr. overly curious and single. And he walked me to the Hospital Wing.” 

“He saved your life! Okay that-“ 

Another pillow flew across the room, landing on Sam’s face. 

“Okay then. I guess I can wait to hear this story ‘til you get hitched.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, and Happy New Year! 
> 
> Now, I need to tell a little story. Writer's block hit me real hard two days ago AND yesterday and though I tried writing, I only got any done yesterday. That's the main reason for why I'm only uploading more now. 
> 
> However, today I ended up writing nearly 3000 words, and I decided that was just far too long for one chapter compared to the last ones. So, because the story made it easy for me, I divided what I wrote in two parts and am posting chapters three and four today! The reason for this is both that I surprised myself by writing so much and also the very upsetting fact that I'm going back to school tomorrow, and as much as I'd love to promise to write every single day, I can't. 
> 
> I will write and upload weekly, that's a promise. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy! :)

The second Kurt walked into the Slytherin common room Santana threw a pillow at him from the sofa in the middle of the room. 

"I saw you, Hummel. So don't lie." She said, grinning. 

Kurt quickly weighed his options. He could sprint out or he could sprint right up to his dormitory, but neither of those options would stop Santana from coming after him. He could still lie, despite her telling him he shouldn't, because it wouldn't be the first time he's heard Santana say exactly what she just did, only to minutes later reveal that she really had no clue. He wouldn't fall for that, that was for sure. Of course Kurt could also tell the truth, no matter what Santana knew or didn't know. 

But then, well - questioning her just seemed like the smartest thing to do. 

"What are you talking about?" 

Santana laughed, patting the place on the couch next to her, her silver acrylic nails glistening in the lighting of the room. "Come on, Kurt. Come tell auntie Tana everything."

Kurt sat down beside her. He crossed his legs and looked at her with his brows raised. 

”What exactly are you referring to by everything?” He could play this game for however long she wanted. 

Or maybe not. 

Santana grabbed the light green pillow from behind her back and tossed it to Kurt’s face. 

“We don’t have time for this, Grandma.” She said, catching the pillow Kurt threw right back at her. “We have Quidditch practice in like thirty minutes and Smythe will be furious if we’re even a second late.” She pointed a finger so close to his face he was afraid her nail was going to poke his eye out or something equally terrific. 

“It’s funny, Kurt, the day you were sorted into Slytherin you despised every house aside from yours – Especially Hufflepuff. And now you’re ready to ride off into the sunset with a Badger? I mean I get it. Boy do I get it, I have seen him and his glorious behind and I can tell you-“

Kurt groaned and buried his face in his hands. “Please don’t.” 

Santana was like she never heard him say a thing. “- if everybody at this school didn’t already know my preferences I would totally be going for it.” 

Kurt shook his head and lifted his head up to look at her through his fingers. “Santana.”

“But since they do, and well, you play for the same team, the least you can do is provide me with some juicy information.” 

He tried to ignore the sudden feeling of having his stomach full of butterflies again as his thoughts traveled back to the string of events Santana wanted to know about. He really, really needed to settle down and take a few deep breaths, because a crush or not, this was ridiculous.

“Alright. The juicy information-“ Kurt formed quotation marks in the air. “You’re looking for here is that I witnessed him falling while flying alone at the stadium this morning and helped him get to the Hospital Wing because he hurt his knee. Scandalous, right?” 

He got up from the sofa and headed to the stairs that went to the boys’ dormitory. 

Santana didn’t mind that, as she got up as well and followed him all the way up the stairs. 

“Oh, it is. I saw you walking to the castle, and you couldn’t have been any closer to each other if you tried.”

He blushed, hiding it as he best could by turning around and heading to his closet. 

“I will get this entire story from you one day, okay?” 

Kurt chuckled. “I’ll let you have that.” He neglected to mention how he truly believed Santana was going to end up short on patience with him in days and would attempt to strangle him to force the details out of him, though. 

“Go get changed ‘Tana, get the hell out of here” The boy shouted from where he was halfway dived into his closet looking for his Quidditch uniform bits. 

Santana smoothed the nonexistent wrinkles of her dark grey, skin tight dress and shook her head even though she was aware of him not seeing her. “Nope.”

The boy turned around with his hands full of clothes and quirked an eyebrow at his best friend. “Really, Santana? Smythe’s going to hang us if we are late, for absolute real.” 

Santana rolled her eyes and took a good ten seconds to look at him in disbelief. “If you are a fool enough to believe that I would risk my place in the team for that, shame’s on you. My stuff’s at the dressing rooms.” 

Without saying a word, he tossed the clothes he didn’t need back in the closet and shut it with a thump 

“I trust you, I guess. I hope.” 

“Yeah, good. Let’s go.” 

-

They couldn’t quite believe their eyes when they arrived at the empty dressing rooms. 

“Even the head bitch isn’t here yet?” Santana looked around her, more than slightly confused as to why that was. 

Kurt just shrugged his shoulders, glad that they were early for once, and they both went into their seperate dressing rooms. 

Kurt closed the boys’ door behind him and the smell of ice gel from just a few hours ago pierced his nose instantly, making him feel funny and warm. Not only that, though - He could still smell the raspberry hair gel the Hufflepuff used gallons of on an every day basis.

He looked through the one tiny window of the room and saw the castle, thinking how and what was Blaine doing, and whether or not his pretentiously selfless helping had actually helped him at all. He hoped it had. 

It hadn’t helped Kurt, that was for sure. He could not stop thinking of the boy. 

-

By the time their practice was over at two thirty and the Slytherin house team was separating to each of the dressing rooms, Sebastian walked up to Kurt and grabbed his shoulder a bit more than a little roughly. 

The Slytherin breathed in deep and quick through his nose and turned to look at their captain. “What?” He snapped. 

Sebastian had the incredibly obnoxious grin plastered on his face like always, and he didn’t even look at Kurt. “So, I hear you had your ways with a certain Quidditch captain and we both know I’m not talking about me.” 

“You wish.” He muttered under his breath before what the guy had said fully drew to him. 

His eyes probably grew twice in size and his jaw dropped, heart pounding furiously. His head started buzzing and his mouth dried completely, making it feel like he had swallowed shards of glass and sand. 

How could he know?  
Nothing happened.  
Could Santana have said something, even if her information was a bit off?  
For sure.  
But would she?  
No, right? 

The noise his brain was making trying to find a way out of the situation was surely audible for the entire wizarding world to hear. 

Keep it totally cool, Hummel.

He cleared his throat, opening the dressing room door. “I hate to repeat myself, but what the hell are you talking about?” 

The human version of Cheshire cat a.k.a. Sebastian laughed, sending chills down his back – and not the desirable kind. 

“Oh, don’t be so modest, Hummel. You know I don’t love you-“ 

“Oh, the feeling is mutual” He, much to his pleasure, got the chance to quip back. 

Sebastian wasn’t fazed by that in the slightest. “-But this stunt you pulled – Couldn’t have thought of it myself. Good job. No doubt you’ll be captain next year.”

Kurt looked at Sebastian like he had just stated with perfect confidence that the sky is green. 

“No, really. This is getting ridiculous. Seems like I only ever have one word for you. What stunt?” 

Sebastian let go of him, walking to the other side of the dressing room to change out of his Quidditch uniform. 

“Uh, the one where you figured out The Badgers’ insane hot captain’s plans to practice alone early Saturday morning and broke the rule that practically prohibits students from bringing wands to the stadium to cast a little spell on him so that he’d mess up his knee and not be able to play next week.” 

Oh. Oh no.

“You think-“ Kurt bit his tongue to stop himself from saying anything else.

“Uh, yeah” He shook his head to himself, getting himself out of the uniform faster than he had thought was physically possible. 

The first and only thing on his mind was Blaine and making sure he didn’t hear this particular rumor, because even if there was really nothing to be between the two of them, which was not only likely but most definitely a true, hard fact, he couldn’t have the boy hating him. He didn’t want to admit it to himself, but just the thought of that happening made his chest ache. 

He hurried out of the dressing rooms, meeting Santana standing right outside waiting for him. 

“Let’s go, now" He grabbed her arm and started walking towards the castle, but she stopped him. 

“Wait, wow. What is going on here?” 

Kurt shot her a look. “Let’s just go, okay? I swear you’ll hear-" He groaned inwardly, -"the story, or whatever.” 

Santana gasped, grabbing Kurt’s arm with both of her hands. “Guide me, Hummel.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, hello again! This is the fourth chapter, as promised and as said I would upload right after the third one. 
> 
> And by the way, if any of you are wondering where the name of this comes from, I was inspired by a song by Pentatonix called Standing By, and I have probably listened to it a hundred times throughout writing this story. (Not a hard task to complete as I happen to LOVE Pentatonix).
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading and all that, it means the world. 
> 
> I hope you ejoy! :)

“And now there’s word going around that you caused Anderson’s injury? Oh I’m gonna find whoever decided to mess with my boy like this.” 

Kurt was a little taken aback by her words. He knew that she had the loving, caring, excessively protective friend in her, but with what she said and the genuinely concerned looking expression on her face, he could see just how much she cared for him. He pushed down the urge to tease her about it for the time of being.

“Who was it, though? Like, do you think Sebastian is behind this?” 

Santana walked in circles and turned on her heels a couple of times before shaking her head. 

“No. He can be quite the smart ass, but he’s not capable of that kind of thinking. He doesn't just start rumors like that, he must've heard from someone else. But that’s not important – I’m sorry, it’s not. You said yourself you need to get to Blaine asap.”

The boy nodded in agreement. “I did. And I do.” He glanced at the clock on the wall. They would start serving dinner in twenty minutes.

“I have repeated myself way too much today, but you should probably go change before we go to dinner" Kurt said, gesturing to Santana’s dress. 

The day the two had first met, when they came to Hogwarts and were eleven years old, she had told him she would never wear her uniform when she didn’t need to and Kurt had agreed and that had somehow started their friendship instantaneously. Now though, over five years later, Kurt often preferred the uniform even on weekends. His styled-to-perfection hair could only take so much of pulling shirts and robes over his head.

“Yeah. Two minutes.” She said, patting Kurt’s shoulder before leaving for the stairs that led to the girls’ dormitory. 

Tens of Slytherins were shuffling and chatting in the common room now, whereas an hour ago there had only been a few second year students around. They all had the same priorities, he guessed. 

Food. 

-

They walked towards the Great Hall in the midst of a crowd of other Slytherins, and Kurt felt incredibly uneasy. 

“I can’t believe there was a time when I despised this skirt.” Santana said right next to him, smoothing her hand over the front of the light grey skirt that stopped at mid-thigh because of the alterations she had or hadn’t got done to in on their last break. 

When they finally arrived at the doors of the hall, he spotted Blaine with Sam Evans - the Hufflepuff keeper, and two girls she could see were from Gryffindor and his heart jumped right up to his throat. 

He couldn’t tell by the looks of him if he knew about the rumor at all - of course he couldn’t, and that didn't help at all. 

Blaine was laughing wholeheartedly at something the blonde one of the two girls said, while the brunette, shorter girl seemed a bit offended, her arms crossed tightly against her chest. 

Through the massive crowd of students he also couldn’t see if Blaine was having trouble with his leg or not. 

I shouldn’t be so worked up about this, Kurt told himself and shook his head, as if he could shake the thoughts away like that.

Santana turned to look at him then and caught him right on staring Blaine’s way, so she linked their arms and nudged him gently with her elbow. “Come on."

“What will I do?” Kurt asked in a hushed, a tiny bit panicked tone. 

They zigzagged their way through all the students to their table and sat at their typical place, next to each other. 

“I get why you’re sweating it, but don’t. The oblivious prince badger probably doesn’t even know. He’s such goody two shoes he’s immune to the rumor mill.” 

Kurt hardly paid any attention to Santana’s words, eyes fixated on Blaine and Sam letting by the smaller Hufflepuffs before sitting down near to the end of the table.

“See, you eat in sync with him and after you’re done, you catch him right outside the Great Hall when everyone’s full and sleepy and heading back to their common rooms and simply don’t care. If someone isn’t, though, you can simply start by talking loudly about Quidditch and that way avoid causing any scene - cause hey, Quidditch." 

Kurt turned to look at her, pursing his lips together. “Only you’re neglecting to include in your plan the fact that half of this school probably thinks that I am the reason he’s limping.”

Santana’s near perfect eyebrows shot up and she smirked ever so slightly. “Wanky.” 

Kurt almost choked on his water, which Santana ignored. 

“Okay fine. You just go talk to him, ask about his knee, do some charming shit, whatever. I’ll have your back. Easy as that.”

Kurt could only hope it was going to be easy like that. 

-

When Blaine got up from the table about forty five minutes later - seemingly having some trouble with his leg, Kurt could see that now, he was so nervous it was yet again completely ridiculous. 

Kurt and Santana got up in sync, luckily having many other people leave just at the same time so they didn’t gain much attention – or really, any at all. 

Kurt saw Sam sprint up the stairs, clearly not bothering to help Blaine, who was still kind of wobbling his way out of the Great Hall. He stopped by the greyish brick wall right next to the entrance of the hall and rolled his eyes, assumedly at Sam, who had disappeared from view. 

Santana gently pushed Kurt from the back in the Hufflepuff's direction. “Go.” 

Kurt swallowed, walked through the people streaming out of the doors and recovered his shuddering breath just before Blaine turned to look at his direction and locked eyes with him. 

Blaine’s golden eyes lit up – or maybe Kurt was making that up, and a smile appeared on his face. 

The Hufflepuff shifted a little, trying to feel more comfortable with the crutches Sam had borrowed him before really looking at Kurt. 

“Hi.” Kurt said, turning to look at Santana way over the other side of the main hall briefly before smiling at Blaine. 

“Hi.” Blaine said, smiling right back at Kurt. He was really happy to see him again. Maybe happier than he cared to admit. 

“So, how’s the knee? What did Ms. Pillsbury say?” Kurt asked, ducking his head in the direction of Blaine’s left knee. 

“Uh.” Blaine looked down to his feet, feeling his face heat up ever so slightly because of what he was sure was the amount of people in the same space. “It’s going to be fine. The fracture’s gone, she handled that, but the tear in the muscle is still there. It shouldn’t be right in time for the game though, so all is good.” He smiled. Not as widely as moments ago, but he was still smiling, and that made Kurt feel horrible and great at the same time. 

Wait, now. He was feeling horrible because of a thing that was made up. 

“And really, I know I said thank you a hundred times, but I could’ve really been in a lot of trouble if it wasn’t for you.” Blaine said, his eyes a pool of golden specks and sparkles and voice full of nothing but sincere, genuine gratitude. 

That made the Slytherin completely toss the rumor aside, as well as the assumption that Blaine knew about it, because clearly he didn’t. Kurt was quite sure his knees had turned into jelly, but he tried his absolute best to keep himself together. Or maybe not.

He blushed, shaking his head. “Uh, yeah. You really could’ve.”

They both laughed, kind of awkward but yet so comfortable, which completely went over the both of their heads because they were so enamored by the other. 

“Well, Sam ran up to the common room about ten minutes ago to read comic books, so I’ll follow him now and do both of our readings for tomorrow’s first class.” Blaine chuckled, taking a few steps forward. 

“Yeah, okay.” 

“See you, Kurt.” 

Kurt smiled and waved at him, clearing his throat and turning on his heels to go to Santana when he received some interesting looks from a few fifth year Hufflepuffs. 

Once he got to Santana, she gave him a thumbs up. 

“I’m telling you, if you are wondering if he likes you back, don’t. Did you see his smile? Anderson’s head over heels for you, Hummel.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I had a sick day today (thank you periods), but that only gave me an opportunity to write this next chapter, so yay!  
> Chances are there might be an another update this weekend, but we'll see. 
> 
> Enjoy! :)

"Dude, what took you so long?" Sam turned to Blaine from where he was sitting on his bed, looking genuinely confused.

Blaine stared at him for a moment with wide eyes, not knowing what would be the most sensible thing to say since it absolutely wasn't 'I practically only have one leg, you moron, that's why. Some help could’ve been okay'.

"Uh, Kurt came to talk to me. " He said instead, putting down the crotches right beside his bed, carefully climbing on it with all of his books and papers. 

"Oh, okay, I get it. Planning wedding invitations and such. Remember to send me at least two." 

The shorter boy huffed, opening a textbook with the words 'History of Magic' on the cover of it. He turned to look for a nonexistent pencil on his left to hide the stupidly giddy smile on his face.

"Maybe - just maybe, you could focus on your and Quinn's relationship instead of something of mine that does not exist." Blaine said after a while, looking over to Sam.

"I know. I'm real sorry if I've come across annoying or something but it's just that I can really see how much you like him, now more than ever, and like how happy he makes you and - I want you to be happy." 

Blaine ducked his head, breathing in deep. He had honestly thought that the best friend of his had only been following the rules of being a best friend and bothering the heck out of him by reminding him of his crush every two seconds.  
Learning that it wasn't just that took him by surprise, but talking about happiness was probably what took him flying out of his comfort zone in the matter of seconds. 

He shook his head, fidgeting with the hem of his robe. "I am happy, Sam." 

Before Sam got the opportunity to say anything, there was a knock on the door of the dormitory and a moment later, Rachel's head popped in. 

"Hi, boys." She said, as quiet as a whisper, as she walked into the room and sat on Blaine's bed. "Quinn's looking for you, Sam." 

Sam got up from his bed and walked straight out of the room, waving his hand as he went.

After the door shut behind Sam, Blaine looked at Rachel with his brows furrowed. "Rachel, you can't be in here."

She leaned forward to briefly hug him and folded her legs under her before clearing her throat.  
"Actually, I can. I told Schuester that I had a cripple friend who really needed my assistance and he let me go like that. Almost sounds like something a Hufflepuff would do, right?"

"Okay." Blaine said slowly, squinting his eyes at her. "And why are you really here? Not that I don't want you to be, I just have a lot to do and-" 

"No, no, stop that. I'm here because I'm your friend and I love you and I feel that you might need someone like that right now." The girl said and smiled like she really meant it, making Blaine really think when had he become so lucky to have such amazing friends.

"Thank you, Rach." The Hufflepuff said, smiling. "I really appreciate that."

"Yeah, well, you should because I have like four essays to write and they're all due next week." She laughed, squeezing his shoulder lightly. 

-

A while passed and they talked about everything and nothing, but Blaine couldn’t get the conversation from not an hour ago with Sam off of his head. 

“Uhm, Rachel. Would you say that I seem like a happy person?” He asked, looking at her quizzically. 

The girl seemed a bit bewildered to be interrupted like that in the middle of the story of how she found the perfect shoes for her fourth year winter ball two years ago.  
Soon, her expression softened. She tilted her head and took Blaine’s hands between hers. 

“You don’t need to be a happy person, Blaine. That would mean being happy all the time, and that’s not how it works. Besides, considering everything, you have every right not to be or pretend to be constantly full of sunshine and puppies.”

“Yeah. It’s just- I talked with Sam.”

“Does this have anything to do with- Kurt?” 

Blaine didn’t even bother asking how she knew about Kurt, because of course she did. If there was something to be known, there was a 99% chance that Rachel Barbra Berry knew it. 

He looked at her with confusion and frustration suddenly whirling in his eyes. He didn’t think the sudden feeling of uncertainty had anything to do with Kurt, really. He felt it had much more to do with what the Slytherin made and didn’t make him feel and how it so massively differed from how he normally was. 

“I really don’t know.” 

He knew what Rachel said was true. It had been seven years since he had been driven out of his childhood hometown elementary school by ignorant, prejudiced idiots. He wasn’t even out then, of course, hardly knowing what such a thing meant. But he was a wizard, and so, not the most regular kid there was. That was enough for them. 

Before and after he went to that school he was the happiest and absolute most energetic, charming little boy in the neighborhood. Or so he had liked to think. After being haunted by boys who thought he wasn’t quite normal but whom they couldn’t really point anything too odd out of either, he did change. 

He got really depressed. 

His mother was so patient and kind to and with him. He could spend days in bed and she would always try and cheer him up, get him to do things, invite him to go shop with her – rarely succeeding. The ‘rarely’ was what kept her trying though. 

He stayed home for six months before his mother even started looking for other schools. 

Then his letter to Hogwarts came. 

When Hogwarts stepped into the picture, the depression got lost. It was no longer present in his life, and got back to his normal state of mind.

Except that he didn’t, not completely, and he only got to really realizing that now. 

“Are you okay?” Rachel asked, both of her hands on his shoulders. 

Blaine’s gaze wondered for a while before it found Rachel’s worried eyes. “Yeah, I am. I just- I don’t think I’ve felt the way I feel now in years. I haven't felt complete, and now I do, in a way.”

“And?”

“I’ve properly talked to him twice, Rachel.” Blaine chuckled, shaking his head. “Am I naïve to think something will come out of it?” 

Rachel shook her head immediately. “Because you've talked two times? Because you’re from two different houses? No, of course you’re not. It would be incredibly naïve to think that nothing could come out of it because of whatever differences there are between you.”

Blaine smiled a little, nodding. His fingers found their way through his hair filled with remainings of possibly grass and definitely hair gel.

“You kicked the butt of depression years ago, Blainers. The fact that you haven’t felt as happy-go-lucky or positive since you were a little boy doesn’t mean that you still aren’t those things, because you are.” Rachel hopped a little closer to him on the bed, wrapping her arms around him. “Sometimes, even with a lot of time passing, it’s hard to let go of things. What you have to let go of is your past in a way that you understand that you can’t change that, and also that you can’t change yourself to be something from the past. You are yourself now, living life now, and overcompensating it will do more harm to you than it will do good.”

Blaine tied his arms around the Gryffindor girl and rested his head on top of hers. 

After a few moments of the two of them just sitting there, he lifted his head up and sniffled. 

“Rachel, have I ever told you how much I love you?” The Hufflepuff asked, audibly emotional, causing Rachel to pout. 

“Aww. Gosh, Blaine, you have, but please tell me again.” 

-

After an hour, Sam returned back to the dormitory smiling very widely. 

“Hey guys!” He greeted, falling right back on the spot on his bed where he left from, in the middle of the growing pile of all different varieties of muggle comic books. 

Rachel rolled her eyes at him affectionately, getting up from the bed. 

“I think that might be my queue. It’s past 8 pm and my wake-up call is at six in the morning.”

Sam groaned at that, remembering that he also had to wake up way before seven in order to make it early to his 8 am class.

“But, Blaine- Based on nothing but what you said to me, I do have a feeling that you and that boy are meant to be. Like, soulmate level meant to be.” She said, shot him a warm smile and closed the door.

From Sam's face he could see that he was going to ask for details of their conversation, so before he got the chance to say a single word, Blaine tossed the History of Magic textbook on his bed and pointed at it. “You are going to read the chapter yourself.”

-

“Hummel! Wake up now or you’ll have to choose between styling your hair and eating breakfast.” 

Kurt sat up in his four poster bed with his eyes still partly closed. He rubbed his face and shook his head. If the stinging in his head was any indication, it couldn’t be legal to wake up at such an early hour.

“What in the name of Merlin are you doing in the boys’ dormitory, Santana?” 

Santana chuckled and took his duvet from where he was cuddling it in his arms. 

“I am here exactly sixty five minutes before your History of Magic class starts at eight so that you can get dressed, fill your hair with your ridiculously expensive hair-care products and still have time to come eat breakfast with me. Now, get up.”

It took Kurt about thirty minutes to be ready, standing in the Slytherin common room with his uniform and hair quaffed to near perfection with the help of several products. 

“Good job, Hummel. Proud of you.” She clapped her hands with a grin on her face, making it impossible for Kurt to resist twirling around once and taking the sarcasm tripping compliment like it had been totally genuine. 

“I’m starving, let’s go.” ¨

-

Kurt and Santana were almost done eating and all the glances Kurt had thrown towards the Hufflepuff table hadn’t made Blaine appear there. He couldn’t help feeling a little bit disappointed – Well, very disappointed, but he was also kind of worried. 

What if something had happened? Sam hadn’t been exactly the most helping friend yesterday. 

Maybe he had fallen somewhere on the halls on their way to breakfast. 

Or maybe he was sick and he wasn’t going to see him for the entire day? 

The Slytherin leaned on Santana sitting next to him, and looked up at her. 

“Are you done?” She asked a little distantly, trying to hold a conversation with the other sixth year Slytherins sitting with them. 

Kurt nodded, leaning on her arm a little heavier. “Can we go, please? You have History of Magic as well.”

She stopped with the apple halfway on it's way to her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut. “Dammit.” 

She looked at him with a somewhat pained expression. “Do we really?”

Kurt nodded again, eyes drawn to a group of younger Hufflepuffs who were making their way into the hall and who Kurt had less or more secretly hoped had been Blaine. He sighed, his shoulders slumping even deeper than before. 

“Okay, fine. Let’s go. I have to copy the analysis of the chapter we had to read from some nerd anyway.”

Kurt got up so fast he thanked his luck he didn’t fall flat on his face in the middle of the Great Hall. 

-

The clock on the wall informed them that the class would start in ten minutes, but most of the students were already there.  
And there were people from each house. That was going to be interesting. 

The Ravenclaws Kurt didn’t recognize had already occupied the first two rows of both sides of the class, to actually everybody’s relief. Nobody wanted to sit in front row, especially in Ms. Beiste’s classes, but clearly they had yet to figure that out. 

Hufflepuffs, Slytherins, Ravenclaws and Gryffindors alike were looking for their places, but Kurt stopped paying attention the second he heard Blaine’s voice not five steps behind him. Well aware of people wanting to still get through the door and into the class, he turned around right in front of the door. 

“Kurt, hi.” The Hufflepuff greeted him, smiling none other than the blinding, wide smile of his. 

“Hi, Blaine.” He said, returning a smile to the boy. He was trying his hardest not to bring up breakfast and Blaine's absence there, because the least of all things he wanted to sound like some stalker who watched his every move.  
He was also trying hard not to pay attention to the widest, most obvious smirk on Sam’s face, but he ended up failing horribly on both of his tasks. 

Kurt turned to look at Sam with his brows raised, who chuckled and caught Brittany on her way to the class, stopping her to talk with him. 

“Uhm, how come you weren’t at breakfast? Are you on like a pre-match all foods cleanse or something?” 

The Slytherin would’ve liked to slap himself right that moment, but lucky for him, it could’ve been worse. He had gotten much better. The latter part of his question only sounded like a joke, not a mean quip that his brain had surely first-handed thought of it as. 

And sure enough, Blaine laughed, and Kurt felt like his life had only ever missed that.

“Oh, no. I just didn’t have much time. I woke up like thirty minutes ago and so Sam went to eat and brought me something. So I’m alright.” 

From the corner of his eye, Blaine could see Sam letting Brittany move forward in the classroom and gesture to come with him and find his seat. “Have a fun history class.” Blaine said, and went searching for a place with Sam. 

Kurt nodded to himself, biting his lower lip to contain himself and his wide smiles that were totally inappropriate to have plastered on your face in History class.

-

“Santana? Will you be sitting with me?” He asked, walking up behind her. 

She turned around and instead of Kurt, she glanced at Brittany, who looked at her at the exact same time. She took a deep breath and shook her head. “No.” 

Before Kurt could say anything, she shot a pointed but friendly look at him. “And you’ll sit with Anderson.” 

Santana sort of pushed him down on a place right next to the window on the left side of the classroom at the same second Sam Evans grabbed Blaine’s shoulder and made him sit right next to Kurt. 

It took him a while with his crotches and books, but when he did sit up straight and turned to look at Kurt, the both of them could swear to themselves they wouldn't be getting any work done. 

Blaine smiled, and if Kurt didn’t know any better, he could’ve sworn he blushed. 

“So I guess we’ll have a fun history class sitting next to each other, then.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I am so so so SO sorry that it took me so long to post this, but there was all kinds of stuff going on and I had no motivation or inspiration whatsoever to write this for several days. This did feel a bit forced at some points, too, and I don't exactly love this chapter, so we shall hope the next one comes smoother. 
> 
> Anyway,  
> enjoy! :)

The Hufflepuff common room was almost empty with the exception of Blaine lying on the sofa and a couple of third year girls sitting by the fire with their papers and pencils. The sun had barely just risen and it was beaming warmly through the tiny little windows in the room. 

"Hey, dude." Sam stormed in through the door and managed to completely startle Blaine who was still kind of sleeping.

He sat up, squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath before turning to look at his best friend. Though he wanted to be annoyed, he was far too sleepy to be. 

"It's 8.30am, and we don't have classes today. How were you out already?" Blaine asked, rubbing his eyes. He wrapped the duvet around himself tighter and pulled his feet farther under it to keep them from the cold.

Sam hurried to sit on the sofa next to Blaine, but he threw a pillow on the spot his legs weren't taking up and shrugged his shoulders, leaving Sam no choice but to sit in the armchair.

"I woke up like two hours ago, because I remembered I had detention-"

Blaine's eyes widened. "You what?"

Sam chose to ignore that and went on with his explaining.

"And then, after that, I went out for a walk and what do I see? There is snow. So much snow-" He threw his arms in the air with the widest smile on his face. 

"Principal Sylvester said that the Quidditch match is canceled because of the snow though." He then said, sounding apologetic, whilst he unwrapped himself out of his scarf and jacket. 

"Apparently it isn't ideal to play when it's so freezing cold or something." 

Blaine shuffled a bit on the sofa, managing to tuck a pillow between his back and the back of the sofa. "That was Sebastian Smythe, for sure. He's complained before. I see no reason why he wouldn't have complained now." He cuddled one of the pillows, shaking his head. "I just can't see why. Last time it was because one of their beaters was out with scrofungulus or something. I thought he'd be overjoyed to play against a team with a cripple as their captain." He wasn't that upset about not getting to play. He also wasn't sure if that was because of how sleepy he still was or just because he really didn't mind that much.

Sam shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, maybe it really just was principal's call. Smythe's the devil, but I'm sure he was sure they'd win easily."

-

Not two hours after Sam had left to meet Quinn somewhere, there were already plenty of people scattered around the room chit-chatting and laughing, whilst Blaine was still half-asleep on the couch – and nobody seemed to care. 

That could've been for many reasons.

Maybe they were just trying their best not to stare at him and focused on something completely else with full commitment to do just that.  
Maybe they were letting him be because he was still ‘the poor guy with the knee injury', or maybe it was because he was a prefect and they wanted to be on his good side.  
Or maybe, just maybe, they really didn't care about a fellow, though older, Hufflepuff sleeping in the middle of their lounge. They were witches and wizards after all, and that was maybe the most boring thing imaginable. 

For whatever reason none of the people had attempted to push him off the sofa, he still couldn't spend the entire day sleeping. He knew very, very well that he had to get up and get things done, even though he didn't have any actual school for the day. 

With all of his willpower he set the pillows back in a neat row against the back of the sofa, got up with his duvet burritoed around himself and walked up the stairs to the dormitory of theirs. The steps were cold under his bare feet, and that made him get up to the bedroom even faster. 

Once he did, he threw the duvet on his bed and sprinted to his closet in search of something to protect him from the cold – because no socks at all and plaid pajamas that were a size too small certainly weren't going to do the job. Not outside in the snow, anyway. 

The Hufflepuff quickly found his uniform as well as the winter season cloak he owned, changing into those. 

In the process of gelling his hair he went to the window and opened the light yellow curtains, revealing the prettiest, all white scenery he had ever witnessed. He put his fingers through his hair a couple more times, making sure his hair really would stay in place, before running – but not really, because uh, recovering knee injury, out of the Hufflepuff headquarters.

-

"We have no classes for the entire day and you waste it by doing what- Laying on the floor? Really, Satan?"

Santana huffed, waving her hand above her head. "And what exactly are you doing?"

Kurt shook his head, walking towards the Slytherin common room door. "I'm going out." 

Santana got up immediately and smiled widely. It was hard to tell if the smile was genuine or mocking, but then again, it was Santana, so it was basically impossible for her to do anything without sounding or looking even the slightest bit mocking. 

"Yeah you are." She said, throwing a robe at him. "I'll see you at lunch."

He got a wink from her before she was practically pushing him out of the door. 

-

When Blaine got out of the two massive, wooden main doors of the castle and stepped into the snow, he was very mildly concerned about falling, especially considering that his knee was almost fully recovered from its last injury now. 

The whole entire ground was covered in white, powdery snow and it glistened in a way that was like all the stars had landed on earth and powdered stardust all over it. 

As he walked down the courtyard, headed to the lake, he was surrounded by tiny, sparkling snowflakes making their way down to the ground. Some of them didn't get just that far, instead gracefully setting on top of Blaine's head and his gelled hair as well as his cloak. 

He came to the lake and sat down on a stump, taking a deep breath. ¨

He couldn't think of a better way to spend a day of cancelled classes than sitting by the lake, surrounded by snow.

-

"Oh, hi." 

It kind of felt like Blaine jumped two feet into the air, but maybe more realistically he flinched and nearly fell on the ground. Keeping it totally cool after noticing who had greeted him, he put on a smile and shook his head. 

Kurt chuckled, ducking his head. How did he feel so horrible for unintentionally scaring Blaine? For the first four years of his career at Hogwarts he had been going around scaring younger housemates of his with Santana all the time, enjoying it immensely. 

Blaine showed to be an exception, in every aspect of the word and in every situation Kurt found him in. 

"I'm really sorry. I didn't really expect anyone to be here."

The Hufflepuff laughed and nodded. "Yeah, me neither. Apology accepted." ¨

Clearly Blaine had taken up this habit, but he scanned Kurt from his perfectly styled hair to his toes that were hid inside the shiny, black shoes he was wearing and noticed that he wasn't necessarily prepared and dressed appropriately for the cold weather. 

He furrowed his brows, which the Slytherin noticed.

"What?" He probably imagined it, but there was a hint of insecurity in the ever so confident Kurt Hummel's tone.

"I feel like maybe you didn't expect yourself to be here in the snow, either. Did you get kicked outside or-?" He asked with a hint of a smile, gesturing him to sit next to him. 

Kurt bit his lip, breathing in the cold air through his nose. "Yeah, uh, Santana was very eager to get me out of her way. She had to catch up on so much homework and papers. I'm fine, though." 

He sat on the edge of the stump, feeling like doing that had been the most stressful task of his life. Blaine was only inches away from him and that was very, very hard to ignore. Especially when he could feel his eyes – the breathtaking honey-colored eyes filled with golden specks of confetti, on him.

"Okay." Blaine breathed out with a smile, now sure that the best way he could spend the day was to be surrounded by snow and be accompanied by this particular boy sitting oh so close to him.

The two of them fell into fairly comfortable conversation about quite the most ordinary things you could talk about in the Wizarding world, including school and food and potions and spells and whatnot, never mentioning Quidditch. It wasn't that big of a deal anyway, and well, the last thing Blaine wanted to do was to go bashing the Slytherin team to Kurt – a Slytherin, who made his heart flutter in a way that certainly felt like it was caused by magic. 

From the corner of his eye the Hufflepuff could see Kurt shivering and pulling the cloak around himself tighter, immediately without any further thinking causing him to duck his head and unwrap the black and yellow striped scarf from around his neck, handing it to him. 

Kurt looked up from where he was looking at his hands on his lap and raised a brow at the other boy. 

"You're freezing." He stated, quiet and kind, holding the scarf in front of him to take. 

The Slytherin could feel his face heating up. His brain turned into mush, unable to produce any coherent sound not to mention words. If he was to believe any of the romantic comedies he'd ever seen, this was a thing that was done between people who cared about each other. People who cared about each other a lot. Of course, Kurt couldn't possibly take that in. Surely that wasn't the case at all. Wizards were far, far from muggles.

Hummel, get over yourself.

"Yeah, I- no. I'm okay." 

Blaine lifted the scarf up and put it behind Kurt's neck despite his objections.

"A part of being a Hufflepuff is helping others, even if they're Slytherin." He said, effortlessly tying the piece of fabric around the other boy's neck. 

Kurt felt like he couldn't trust himself with his words. Instead he looked up at Blaine, who was looking at him with the most breathtaking smile.

Not only was being kind the nature of Blaine's house, it was also the nature of his very self. So much so that when he was smaller, he only really knew how to be kind. People could've been throwing rocks at him and he wouldn't say a single mean word. Being in an environment where there were people who were mean by nature for years had taught him to be snarky and even mean when needed, but that truly fought against everything he was. 

"Besides, you helped me. It's about time I returned the favor." 

Kurt ducked his head, chuckling. "Okay, fine. I kind of always thought Slytherins were the persistent ones." 

The Hufflepuff laughed and shook his head. "That is not something only Slytherins can do, no." 

Oh, if Kurt hadn't noticed that.  
And countless of other things Blaine just somehow magically was perfectly amazing at. Things that had never really fazed him before, too, but with this boy and at this point where he already kind of knew him, it almost felt like only seeing him breathe was like witnessing the eight wonder of the world. 

He was in deep?  
Yeah, he was, and very aware of that.

"Breaking the stereotypes every so often is important. I understand that the houses are old and respected and they are truly wonderful-"

Kurt quirked an eyebrow at him, trying not to laugh, which Blaine noticed. "They are." 

"Bur what I don't understand are the problems created between the houses today. There have been rivalries from the very beginning, and the ones of us who haven't slept for all of our History classes, we know why and we respect that. But the students of this day being afraid of being seen talking to anyone but people who wear their colors? That is something I would personally like to change."

"Right." The Slytherin said, a little breathless. "Listen, Blaine." 

He pinched his thumb to feel if he could actually still feel it. Was he really going to say what he was thinking of saying?

"Do- uhm. Are we, I don't know, friends?" 

Blaine blinked at the question, not even sure if it had been an actual question. He searched Kurt's eyes, only finding unsureness in them as if they were reflecting his own feelings, being wildly unhelpful.

"Yeah. Of course." The Hufflepuff found himself saying, getting a hesitant smile from the other boy.

"Right. Okay. If that isn't breaking the stereotype." Kurt grinned.

Blaine leaned on his shoulder, returning the grin.

"As much as I would love to sit here with you the whole day and avoid any responsibility I have, I think I should probably head back in."

Kurt nodded, knowing exactly what the Hufflepuff was talking about. He also had several spells to learn and a paper on transfiguration that he had to write. 

They both got up at the exact same second and before either of them knew anything, Blaine's arms were wrapped around Kurt and Kurt's hands were gripping Blaine's back a bit too tightly. 

They stood there for a while that was so minimally uncomfortable it would've been weird if either of them had given it any thought. Neither of them really did, though. 

They let go of each other, both a bit short on breath.

"See you."

"Yeah."

It was going to be very, very challenging to be friends with someone who smelled so good and who he was head over heels into.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, wow. Recently I have sucked as a writer, and I am well aware and not proud of that. However, this chapter that ended up being a whole lot longer than the previous ones gave me all kinds of feels and I don't think it's possible for me not to write this now. I felt kind of stuck with this for a long while, but now I think that I have a path I'm going along with it and yeah. No more writers block for me with this one. 
> 
> Also, I just happen to have a week of vacation, so I will definitely be writing a lot and updating my things more. (Yes, this AND Teenage Dream) ((Check that out if you haven't already and want to - I'll love you, though I do love you already if you're reading this))
> 
> Speaking of which, I truly, madly, deeply appreciate each and every one of your reads, kudos', comments and critiques and all of those things. I write as much for myself as I write for all of you. 
> 
> Now, I hope you enjoy! :)

By the time Kurt arrived to The Great hall for lunch, there were only a few people scattered on their tables, gentle chatter echoing from the walls of the space.

"Hey, what took you so long?" Santana asked him when he sat down next to her, her mouth pretty much stuffed with food. 

"Attractive, 'Tana." He chuckled, grabbing different foods from the table and putting them on his plate. 

They sat there in silence for a while, Kurt taking his time with spreading butter on the pieces of bread on his plate. He could feel a smile tug on his lips constantly, and he had to practically press them together in order not to look like an absolute idiot smiling at his bread, but if Santana's amused expression was anything to go by, he had failed horribly at that particular task.

"Oh, I get it. You met with Mr. Goody two shoes." 

The boy looked up at her piercingly, raising his eyebrows. He could play this game forever if he wanted to, though with a friend like Santana, who felt obligated to know every little detail about everyone’s life she cared about, it was challenging - to say the least. 

"Okay, don’t look at me like that, like this has nothing to do with me. Hells yes it has. You're my best friend, and I will be your maid of honor when you two get hitched. Therefore anything and everything leading up to that moment is my business." 

Kurt wasn't sure if he should protest or not, but fairly quickly coming to the realization that it really wouldn't be worth it. Not with Santana, anyway. 

"Yeah, sure." He said and bit his tongue only to get something else to think about than scenarios of his wedding with a person he’d actually really known for about a week. Pining over a wizard from the rivaling house for years doesn’t equal knowing them, no matter what he’d previously convinced himself. 

“Past the state of denial, huh? I want details, Hummel.” 

“Details? Of what?” 

Santana groaned, tossing the closest fruit – a pear, at him. 

Unfazed by the gesture, like getting hit by fruits wasn’t anything he hadn’t gotten used to, Kurt picked the pear up from his lap and placed it back on the table. 

Only now Santana’s eyes were drawn to the Hufflepuff colored scarf lying next to him on the bench. Her eyes widened and her mouth effortlessly turned into a smirk as she grabbed the piece of clothing and held it up in front of her. “How about details of how you have this with you? About time you moved onto the kinky ish with mi-“ 

Kurt slapped her arm, too mortified to actually say anything. 

Santana’s flaming dark hazel eyes were intent on him, her eyebrow quirked in what he’d learned was her patented **_spill the tea_** look. 

“He gave that to me. Do you know how cold it’s out? And how you kicked me to the curb without getting clothes appropriate for that? Well, as the gentlema-“ Kurt ducked his head and cleared his throat. “Uh, Hufflepuff that he happens to be, he insisted on giving me that.” 

Santana pouted and put the scarf back where it had been. “You’re so boring.” 

“I’d be happy if I were you. The wedding you were just planning a minute ago wouldn’t exactly be realistic if I had frozen to death without that scarf.” 

“I guess you do have a point there, Hummel.” 

Thankfully at this point in time and into their friendship, he had gotten used to feeling like he was dealing with a five year old whenever he talked with Santana, so this was nothing new.

“We’re friends.” He said after a while, the perfectly simple sentiment making his insides feel like they’d inherited an entire zooful of wild butterflies. 

Santana turned his way and to his utter surprise, squeezed his hand, her features nothing but kind. “I’m actually really glad to hear that.” She said, smiling lightly. 

Smiling back at her he slowly started realizing how impossibly frustrating it must have been for her to look at his ridiculous crush from close and not be able to do anything about it, yet knowing how it feels, and why. Brittany, Santana’s girlfriend, was a Ravenclaw, and she had gone through probably exactly what Kurt was now. That’s what it was, he realized - That’s why she was so involved with this, so intent on knowing absolutely everything. She wasn’t just after gossip. Surprisingly enough she hardly ever was, but especially not now. She wanted to know every little detail about his and Blaine’s friendship, because she wanted to find all the signs for it having the possibility of revolving into something that she and Brittany now were.  
Kurt instantly felt so stupid for not immediately realizing this, but before he could bring it up, Santana was standing up and taking him with her. 

“Wh-“ Kurt tried to protest, startled, barely being able to hop over the bench in time for her to tuck at his hand, almost sending him face forward to the stone floor. 

That was until he spotted Sebastian walking into the room and wasted no time speeding up along with Santana. 

Only the boy had already noticed them, and was walking towards them like some kind of predator towards their prey.  “Hey, Hummel. Lopez.” 

Santana exhaled loudly, rolling her eyes.  “Can’t you even try to not sound like the most unbearable teacher for once in your life, Smythe?” 

Sebastian just laughed, shaking his head and to their devastation, not the stupid, permanent smirk off of his face.  “Calm down, Satan. I’ve got no business talking to you.” He said, turning to look at Kurt, who squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his temples, starting to gain a headache from only knowing that he was going to have to have a conversation with Sebastian now. 

“What is it?” He asked with a sigh, pulling his best resting bitch-face just in hopes of shaking the boy quicker that way. 

The Slytherin looked him in the eyes for about five seconds – five seconds too long, before finally opening his mouth. “I just wanted to inform you that you don’t need to keep up any act. It’s fine.”

Kurt raised his brows, not at all surprised that he yet again could not understand Sebastian. Maybe it was a good sign that he was above him and so much so that it was almost like they spoke two different languages, often having difficulties in communication. “What does that mean, exactly?” 

“It means that you don’t have to pretend to care about that Hufflepuff Anderson and how his leg is doing, or whatever. It’s cool what you did, trying to help the team, but what you’re doing now is taking it too far and certainly not helping the team. Soon enough they’ll think we actually care about someone other than ourselves.” Sebastian exclaimed, making Kurt feel equal parts horrified that he had picked up something and amused that the quidditch captain nothing but confessed to being a selfish prick.

When he didn’t speak quickly enough, Sebastian continued; “So, I would appreciate it if you didn’t hang with him. Pretending to be nice is exhausting and it sucks, and I want you in the best condition you can be for the next game.” 

Kurt swallowed, ready to come back at him, but before he could he felt Santana’s arm wrapping around his. “No. Seriously not worth it. Let’s just go.” 

He looked at her and he looked at Sebastian, weighing his choices. Not much of a competition there. He nodded quickly and let himself be walked away by Santana. 

“Are we clear now?” Sebastian asked behind them, and clearly that was the last straw for Santana and her patience. She pulled her wand out of her knee-high, black boots and pointed it at him. 

“Avis”, she muttered, causing a flock of birds fly towards and freak out on Sebastian – Not enough to hurt him in any way, but just enough to scare him and send him walking away as quickly as possible, listing every curse-word in existence as he went. 

Kurt quietly admired this act of Santana’s, not really saying anything until they were in the Slytherin hallway. “That was amazing.” He chuckled, bumping their shoulders together, causing her to grin proudly in response. 

They could only thank their lucky stars that Sebastian was in the same house as them, because otherwise her little outburst could’ve got her into a whole lot of hours spent at principle Sylvester’s office. 

“Kurt?” 

He turned around in a heartbeat, surprised and almost overjoyed to hear that particular voice. 

“Blaine?” 

The Hufflepuff was approaching him with his arms securely crossed against his chest and face as serious as ever, no sign of a smile to be seen. 

“Is something wrong?” Kurt asked immediately, gesturing Santana to go into the common room. He walked closer to Blaine, who was biting the inside of his cheek clearly just to maintain the behavior that was expected from his house and not burst out yelling or something equally as Hufflepuff-unlike. 

“Is it true what Sebastian told me? That you actually cursed me to fall off of my broom that day I injured my knee?” His voice was small and quiet, eyes pooling with sad golden specks of gold. 

He’d finally heard about it. He had heard the rumor. The very, very untrue rumor that Kurt was so afraid he’d hear and not doubt it one bit because of the colors he so proudly wore.  
Blaine’s words instantly made him feel sick to his stomach, unable to think quite straight. He felt like he’d been cursed with Slugulus Eructo like he’d been on his very first week at Hogwarts.

With wide eyes, his mouth gaping slightly open in shock, he shook his head weakly. “No. Why would I ever do something like that?” His voice was shaking and he felt so weak he wasn’t sure his feet were going to support him for much longer. 

The Hufflepuff let out a very bitter sounding laugh and shrugged. “I don’t know. Because we’re on rivaling Quidditch teams? Because you’ve barely ever talked to me before? Because you don’t know me?” And sure enough; “Because you’re Slytherin?” Blaine’s eyes grew sadder and sadder as he spoke. Was he losing a friend here? Was Kurt ever really even his friend? They’d really known each other for a week - could friendship be defined in such a short amount of time? Even if the answer to that was yes, he wouldn’t be losing a new found friend. He would be losing a long, long term crush and someone who on the course of a week had made him feel happier than he could remember last being. 

Kurt inhaled shakily, finding himself shaking his head again. He wasn’t surprised at all that Blaine would make that assumption of him; that because he was Slytherin his genes were to go around hurting people. That wasn't too far from the truth, after all, but it wasn't the case here - never with Blaine. He was completely devastated. 

“I- I really can’t defend myself here, can I?” He ended up asking.

“Did you hurt me on purpose?” Blaine pressed, no anger to be heard in his voice. He was either hiding it very well or he had such good manners that he couldn't get himself to yell at him. 

Kurt dared to take one more step towards the other boy, but couldn’t muster up the courage to touch him. He looked him in the eyes instead, determined to show him that this situation was unnecessary and caused by a misunderstanding, even though he could feel the lump just growing and growing in his throat. “I didn’t, and I never would. Not you.” He said, so honest and so genuine he flinched at his words a bit himself. 

_It would be incredibly naïve to think that nothing wouldn’t come out of it_ , Rachel’s words flashed through Blaine’s mind. He looked around, biting his lip, visibly incredibly torn and confused.

“Not me?” He asked, voice barely above a whisper now. 

It was either now or never, Kurt decided, grabbing Blaine’s hand. “I have hurt and probably will continue purposefully and unintentionally hurting people around me. However, I would never hurt someone who I’ve wanted to know better for years, someone I’ve wanted to get to know despite tradition and years and years of history being against it. Unintentionally – Well, that’s a thing I can’t promise, but on purpose? Never.” Kurt said breathlessly. 

Blaine gasped almost inaudibly, sadness and doubt immediately leaving his golden eyes. Maybe he was being incredibly stupid, but every part of him believed what Kurt said. He could feel his hand tingling under Kurt’s, and he almost felt like he had to actually tear his eyes away from their hands in order to look him in the eyes. 

“Are you saying-“ 

“I’ve had a crush on you since the very beginning of year four, Blaine, and I feel so stupid I’m only telling you now.” 

Blaine had absolutely no idea what to say. There was so much he needed to say and so little that his brain would coherently produce in that moment, but then Kurt was leaning towards him and he didn’t need to say anything. Their lips met and the both of them were blinded by fireworks. The one of Blaine’s hands that wasn’t now gripping Kurt’s found its way to his neck and Kurt’s to Blaine’s waist. The kiss was sweet and simple but packed with so much emotion that by the time they parted the Hufflepuff was throwing his arms around the slightly taller boy.

_You and that boy are meant to be. Like, soulmate level meant to be._

Blaine exhaled, deep and shaky, before leaning back enough to look Kurt in the eyes. “That’s what I need to say to you, too, actually. But you might’ve already gotten that.” He laughed, feeling almost lightweight. 

“Yeah, I did get that.” He grinned, not being able to take his eyes off of the Hufflepuff’s ever so blinding smile.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An update on time (I think)! *pats self on the back*
> 
> I don't know if you know, but I am currently working on two different stories, which basically means that my attention is divided WHICH means that updating is a tad trickier and slower, but definitely still happening. Don't you worry. 
> 
> Now, I just want to thank yall for the usual things, as always. Thank you. I appreciate you all very much.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Blaine grabbed a pillow and pressed it against his face, muffling the pained groan that escaped him as he got up from the common room sofa. He sucked in a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut, not exhaling until Rachel’s voice came from the other side of the room. 

“Oh, honey. What’s wrong?”

The Hufflepuff lowered the light yellow pillow from his face, clutching it against his chest and smiling forcefully at Rachel whilst biting the inside of his cheek in attempt to refrain the piercing pain in his kneecap. 

“Nothing. I’m fine.” He said and swallowed, pursing his lips. With a quivering breath he shifted his weight on the left leg, the pain shooting through his entire body. This was absolutely not happening. 

The brunette girl, as she happened not to be blind, didn’t buy his lousy lie one bit, sprinting across the room to him. “No, you’re not. Is it your leg?” She pressed worriedly, lying a gentle hand on his shoulder.

What was the point? If his supposedly recovered knee had decided to re-break, what was the point in hiding that? 

“Uh, I-“ He straightened the knee, reaching down to rub his fingers over it. “Yeah.” 

The Gryffindor frowned, grabbing the pillow from his grasp and throwing it back on the sofa. “I was going to say something to you about that, sitting **_on_** your injured leg like that-“ 

Typical Rachel Berry. 

Blaine rolled his eyes, gently whacking her upper arm. “Right.”

“No, I swear. I’m sorry I didn’t.” She said genuinely apologetically, making him feel very bad considering he had no reason to. The girl wasn’t into acting for no reason. 

“Could you just maybe walk me to the library?” He asked, feeling the girl’s arm immediately linking with his. “I really need to write a paper on goblin rebellions and I have barely started.” 

With a sharp nod and a sympathetic smile from her – because she knew from experiece he would most probably fall asleep ten minutes into doing research about said goblin rebellions, they were headed to the library upstairs. He was utterly, utterly grateful that she left her quips about him needing her help to get up two stories of magical stairs he’d been climbing up for years, letting him solely focus on just how much his knee was bothering him and how much weight he could put on it without having to take too much support of Rachel and falling face forward onto the stone floor, taking her with him. 

As they were getting closer to the end of the stairs and Blaine’s grunts and groans were minimal, Rachel turned to look at him. “I’m really happy for you, you know?” 

“Because I managed to pick up an already recovered injury?” He asked, knowing perfectly well what the girl was actually talking about – he was really just not in the right space of mind to be thinking of that, no matter how sweet she was being about it.

“No. Because of you and Kurt.” She said, gripping on his waist unnecessarily tightly for the last few stairs. “I said that you absolutely were meant to be. I’m not wrong often, as you see.”

Blaine couldn’t help laughing at that declaration. As much as he maybe despised to admit it and boost her already big enough ego, it was true. Rachel pretty much knew everything, always, but then again he was sure it was because she was constantly consuming so many meaningless rumors about ex-quidditch players retiring because they’d been caught with enhancing their performances with non-allowed magic or something just as monumentally exciting and expanding her knowledge-in taking possibilities that way. Or then she was just a phenomenal witch that just happened to be a know-it-all. Who really knew?

They walked in through the doors of the library and were immediately greeted by Mr. Figgins, the librarian. They politely greeted him back, Blaine through slightly gritted teeth, because standing there with his leg straight wasn’t the most comfortable position he could be in. “Oh, I’m so sorry.” Rachel muttered, squeezing his shoulder quickly and helping him walk towards the tables meant for students.

“Speaking of you and Kurt” She said then, pointing to the direction of the back of the library.

Blaine turned to look in the same direction, a smile spreading on his face. Sitting there, in the far corner of the room, was Kurt; with his hair coiffed to its usual perfection with what Blaine was convinced was magic, surrounded by dozens of books and papers. 

Rachel walked him over there, letting go of him just behind the Slytherin’s back. “Have fun.” She stage whispered, giving him such an exaggerated wink he couldn’t help chuckling despite his slight mortification.

Her whisper was enough to startle Kurt, making him turn towards the sound in his chair. Before he could see where it had come from, he was faced with Blaine; gorgeous, honey-colored eyes and ridiculously long lashes owning Blaine. The very same Blaine who he now knew liked him back, though still couldn’t quite believe that to be real life. 

“Oh, hi.” He said, a smile taking over his features very quickly. 

Blaine mouthed hi back, cocking his head towards Rachel, who was still standing there a few steps away from them with a grin on her face. 

Kurt turned towards her slowly, not knowing what to expect. Seeing the Gryffindor girl standing there was a relief of sorts. “Oh, Rachel. Hi.” 

She didn’t lose the grin as she waved at him and turned on his heels to head what he imagined was back to the Gryffindor common room. With her in question, you really could never be sure.

Typical, typical Rachel Berry. 

Blaine shook his head, approaching the table and the seat opposite Kurt with as much grace he could muster up with his limping and bitten back grunts. 

“Is it okay if I sit here?” He asked, although it kind of seemed like the silliest question in the world now. The boy was aware of his feelings and vice versa and it still felt very unrealistic – as did the fact that he needed to keep shifting slightly on the spot in order not to show any signs of his knee feeling like it was being stabbed with hundreds of tiny little needles. Kurt wasn’t stupid though – he was really sharp, and that didn’t help his uneasiness at all. 

Sure enough, the Slytherin raised his brows at him quizzically. He let his gaze wander to Blaine’s knee before looking him in the eyes again. “Is your knee okay?” He asked, more quietly now, worry written all over his features. 

Blaine brushed it off and sat down simply because he couldn’t stand standing anymore.

Damned be his manners.

He shook his head again, more vigorously this time, pinching his knee. “It is.”

“It is definitely not.” 

“How can you say that?”

“You wouldn’t have sat down without my consent if you could actually stand.” Kurt stated simply, a gentle, knowing smile tugging at his lips. 

Ducking his head, Blaine clutched his History of Magic book and stack of papers tighter on his lap. He wasn’t one to deny Kurt’s statement because it was actually true.

The charming idiot suffered for thirty extra seconds just to act like a gentleman, Kurt thought, and he couldn’t decide if he was putting more weight on the charming or the idiot part. 

He scanned the library around them several times before reaching out to grab the Hufflepuff’s hand on top of the table, lightly brushing his knuckles with his thumb. “The answer is yes, though. You can sit there.” He said, equal parts amused and perfectly charmed. 

Yeah, maybe the weight was falling on the charming part. 

He bit his lower lip and squeezed Kurt’s hand before letting go. The library was quite quiet, not many people were around, but he wouldn’t risk someone who wasn’t supposed to see them seeing them. He didn’t fancy having Sebastian Smythe barging into the library only to witness his quidditch team star being unnecessarily friendly with a rival – a rival said Smythe was convinced the said star had sabotaged for their team’s advantage. 

“Sebastian doesn’t know how to read, Blaine. I have neglected to share that with you, haven’t I? He’s not around here, ever” Kurt said as if he was reading his mind. There was no need for that, though, because after a long conversation they’d had about what was challenging about them spending more time together they’d come to the conclusion that Sebastian was probably the number one thing they would to the both of their utter frustration have to be concerned of.  

“Uh, yeah, you have.” He said, opening the History of Magic textbook from the page he’d marked as the one he’d have to start with. The dark-haired boy was just about to open his mouth to ask him what he was doing in the library, but he was much faster to change the subject.

“That is not something we should be focusing on now, though. Why’s your knee so bad again?” 

It was almost as if every time it was mentioned or he thought about it that the knee stung even persistently, reminding him that it sure still was there and very much bothering him. 

“Oh. Turns out sitting on your recently recovered knee isn’t the best thing you could do.” He said flatly, grabbing a pen and writing his essay topic on the top of the paper in front of him. 

Kurt frowned and sighed, slipping a piece of paper between the pages of the book he was in the middle of reading before closing it. “I’m sorry.” He said so apologetically that it felt like he was apologizing for something he actually had a reason to be sorry for. 

The Hufflepuff looked back up from his book and shook his head lightly. “No, no. You couldn’t have-“

“No, I know.” He replied with a nod. “But I’m still sorry. What kind of a person would want to see someone they care about hurting?” 

These words felt like the most unbelievable yet natural thing that could’ve come out of the Slytherin’s mouth. He no longer needed to keep it to himself how much he really did care about Blaine and how much of his brain capacity the boy had actually taken up since he’d first seen him. The fact that he could admit his feelings to him now, over and over, was bizarre but then again - inevitable. 

Blaine blinked several times, eyes fixed on the other wizard. The boy’s feelings weren’t any new revelation to him, but it not being new didn’t make it any less terrifyingly amazing. 

“Right. I’m sorry that I was so inconsiderate, of course I know you, uh, care.” He stammered out, not taking his eyes off of Kurt. 

The Slytherin rolled his eyes in amusement. “How about we stop apologizing for stupid things and you try and write that paper of yours?” 

“Although not the loveliest task to have at hand, I know I need to, so yes.” He agreed, almost saying sorry but managing to keep himself from doing that. 

“Also, I highly doubt you even have the ability to be inconsiderate.” Kurt said, sharp blue eyes suddenly so kind and admiring Blaine couldn’t help but feel like he was melting into a puddle of goo under his gaze. 

“Isn’t that what happens? When you get sorted into a house certain often completely human emotional abilities just disappear? Like with Hufflepuff, everybody knows exactly where to find everything, but I’m sure there has been a point in time when some of your friends lost their shoes and couldn’t find them again.”

The badger scoffed. “So you mean like when you get sorted into Slytherin, you just forget that other people have feelings?”

“Yeah, exactly like that.” He said with a chuckle, shooting him a look that suggested him not going down this path further - again.

They spent over two hours in quite comfortable somewhat a silence, and Blaine found out that Kurt was really in the library doing something precisely as exciting as him – He was in the middle of making a presentation about the most remarkable clashes between wizards and centaurs from the last five centuries.

 They both actually wrote quite a bit of their respective papers, until Blaine looked up at the clock on the wall and realized dinner was going to be served in about a half an hour. He didn’t even need to say anything, because Kurt was already on his feet, everything packed, looking at him quizzically.

“Are we going?” He asked with a smile, offering his free hand to Blaine, causing his stomach to twist up in dozens of knots.  


“Oh” The shorter boy breathed out and ducked his head in attempt to hide his very evident blush. He gathered his things and grabbed Kurt’s hand, letting him pull him up to his feet.   


“Are you sure-” Blaine was starting to ask as Kurt wrapped his arm around his waist, supporting him in the very same fashion he had when he’d first gotten the injury.  


“Yes, I am sure. It’s fine. Your walking struggle is obvious, so it will look like I’m just being a shockingly decent Slytherin.”  


The Hufflepuff tried his absolute best not to read into the situation too much, but despite all of his attempts not to, he ended up doing just that. Yes, they had kissed, and just the reminder of that made Blaine’s heart flutter in his chest. Kurt had pretty much poured his soul out for him, telling Blaine everything Blaine himself had thought about telling Kurt many times. Rachel had also on several occasions told him that the two were definitely bound to be together, and that was it, because that's what Blaine wanted to think too. Of course he did. If after a week and a half of close contact a person could feel as familiar as Kurt did, he could only wonder what kind of a difference a month, a year would make. And he definitely had wondered, so many times he’d lost count. He had probably even actually come to thinking of the wedding invitations he’d so many times heard Sam gush about, and that was speaking the levels of what this meant to him. But he truly, truly didn't want to push it, especially considering in which position they were with only spending time together and just because of their differing houses. 

Blaine was shaken back to reality by not only his knee hitting the door frame on their way out of the library, making him hiss again, but also Sebastian’s voice coming from not five feet in front of them. 

“Oh hey, Hummel.”   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, you guys, a thousand hits on this story? I would really like to thank my mom who is probably responsible for half of them.
> 
> No but for absolute real, though maybe not as big of deal to everyone, to me that kind of a number on something I have created is very, very bizarre and wonderful, so thank you. Thank you for supporting me and my stuff.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi! You guys, I'm working on so much right now that I'm going to have to ask you to bear with me if my updates take a small forever to come. I truly love and appreciate you all, and when I say that I try my best with trying to be a decent writer/updater, I mean it. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Blaine expected the Slytherin's hand to fly off and away from his waist as if it was on fire the second he heard Sebastian's voice, but his grip only tightened.

"Sebastian" Kurt barely managed to say through his gritted teeth and clenched jaw in greeting. His blue eyes were suddenly almost aflame, burning imaginary holes onto the other Slytherin's face, meanwhile he was just grinning back at Kurt like he was completely oblivious about the fact that he was far from a pleasant person to be around.

”Blaine.” Sebastian said flatly in what was undoubtedly his attempt on a nice greeting. Needless to say, the attempt wasn’t very successful, and all Blaine could do was breathe and nod and be thankful that so much of his attention was aimed at his knee and the pain and keeping his balance. Because if it hadn’t been for his slight struggles, he would’ve possibly already broken the Hufflepuff protocol of being kind and compassionate and lashed out on the boy – which was exactly what Kurt did.

“So what is it that you want?” Kurt all but snapped. He maybe didn’t want to have anything to do with Sebastian outside the unavoidable time they spent together because of quidditch, but he certainly didn’t want Sebastian anywhere near Blaine.

“Oh, nothing. I just couldn't resist coming by and reminding you of this one particular conversation we had not four full days ago.”

The Slytherin’s eyebrows rose and frustration started bubbling inside of him as he realized what conversation Sebastian was referring to.

So, it was all about Blaine.

Over the years he had spent so much time thinking of how he should behave to fit the regular Slytherin mold, wondering who he could talk to and who he could be seen with, caring so much for an incredibly old, conservative way of thinking it was absolutely ridiculous – and just how much so? That was all only coming to him now.  
He was really tired of trying to meet expectations that were not realistic, and in that moment he realized that it really wasn’t worth it. Not anymore, at least. He had been sorted into Slytherin for a reason and he knew that. He was quick-witted and sharp-minded. He didn’t really care about other’s opinions. He appreciated the history, to a certain point. He just couldn’t allow himself to come to terms with something as stupid as the strong belief that only the ones of the same house could have mutual respect and understanding.

“Okay.” He started, locking eyes with Sebastian. “You are not one to tell me what I can or can not do, Sebastian. Nor is this school for that matter, but you even less so.” He said, his voice perfectly stern.

“And what does that mean, exactly?”

“It means that you can’t tell me who I spend time with, who I talk to, or whose bones I break on the quidditch field. You have no power over me, no matter what you have convinced yourself for all these years. You are older than me, yes. You are the captain of a team I belong to, yes! But you are not above me anywhere but on that field. See, being the captain of a sports team does not give you the right to treat other people like human garbage when you are certainly not any better yourself.”

Blaine stared at Kurt with his mouth unconsciously gaped open. He knew that Kurt was always ready with his words, but he had never seen him like this. Honestly, he was kind of undecided on if he simply adored or despised what the Slytherin was doing, but quickly settled on adored after realizing he would've done the same thing if he was in the same position as him. pr

Though Kurt desperately wanted to turn and look at Blaine, his gaze never left Sebastian’s face where his obnoxious grin was still on place.

“Oh wow, Hummel. I’m afraid I can’t believe any of the things that you just said.” He snorted.

“Yeah, I'd imagine you can't because you can’t take criticism and you have absolutely no sense of realism, Smythe. Also because you only care for yourself and don’t probably even realize that all these people around you have – shocking as it is, feelings, and bones.” 

"Have I hurt your feelings or something, because if I have, l am sincerely-“ He started with a laugh only to immediately be cut off by Kurt who was not going to listen to any of his crap more than was absolutely necessary.

“I could never be offended by any of the trash that comes out of your mouth, and even if I could, I never would give you the satisfaction of letting you know.” He said, flinching at how bitter he suddenly sounded.

 _This has nothing to do with Sebastian_ , he had to remind himself. This wasn’t about how many times he’d let that boy make him feel like he wasn’t evil enough to be Slytherin or something else as perfectly crooked as that. This was about standing up for himself and the person that had grown to be one of the most important people in his life in just a few weeks.

“Besides, that’s bullshit. You are never sincerely anything besides an intolerable jerk.”

“Do you want to keep your place in the team or not, Hummel?” He suddenly asked, sounding like he had nothing else left to say, mouth somehow still turned into a smirk and his arms crossed tightly across his chest.

“Whether or not I want to have the place in the team, you can’t kick me out.” Kurt stated, much calmer, enjoying this way more than he should've. “I mean you can, but we wouldn’t make it, would we?”

He didn’t really even need to ask to know the answer, because he knew that they wouldn’t. He was the best seeker they could have, and though he wasn’t too big on being egoistic or self-centered (the team already had one of those), he knew that without him the team wouldn’t be winning a singular game.

Sebastian was clearly trying his hardest to hide the realization that the other Slytherin was just being truthful. “Yeah, right.” He said flatly. “What do you think I’m going to do?”

“I’m not going to start playing trivia with you. All I know is that you are going to leave me and my boyfriend alone and that’s that.”

He realized what he’d said the fracture of a second after the word left his mouth.

Kurt had messed up enough times in his life to instantly know when he did mess up, and boy had he messed up now.

Not only was his own instinct an indication to that he had screwed up big time; The boy – the one he’d just seconds ago called his boyfriend, the one who wasn't, tensed and though he wasn’t brave enough to look at him, from the corner of his eye he could see his head ducked down and his chin nearly touching his chest.

Maybe he didn’t know what he was thinking, but the boy looked more than uncomfortable.  
And he was. Blaine was uncomfortable. They hadn’t had any conversation around the topic and though he’d been wondering exactly what they were for days, this didn’t make him feel any better. He still felt like he had no answers to his questions whatsoever, and on top of that, this was Sebastian Kurt was talking to. The person who wouldn't hesitate to use any assumption of the two of them being nothing but enemies against them. Still, he couldn't ignore the fluttery feeling in his chest caused by Kurt calling him something he'd wanted to be to him for so long. 

Kurt swallowed and it felt like it was audible for the entire school to hear. He could feel heat creeping up his neck and face and with skin as pale as he had it was always very, horribly visible.

 _Way to go, Kurt Hummel_ , he thought, making another mental note to slap himself for yet another stupid thing he'd done.

When he finally looked back at Sebastian after several moments of looking at anything but him including the stone walls and moving portraits surrounding them, his smirk was alive and well stretched across his lips.

“Your boyfriend, huh?”

“We’re done here, Sebastian.” Kurt proclaimed hurriedly, somehow even to his own surprise managing to keep his voice completely unwavering.

It was Kurt’s time to be surprised when Blaine’s hand went nowhere from around his upper back when he turned on his heels and started heading towards the stairs. Considering how utterly idiotic he’d been, he was expecting Blaine to be far far away from him by now, but there he was. He did have a knee problem, but Kurt was sure if he’d needed to, he would’ve tried to run nevertheless.

Even though he was there, Kurt was too scared to say anything, because he truly wasn’t ready to give up on Blaine. They had just gotten to know each other, and if they never talked to each other again because of some jerk Kurt desperately needed to give a piece of his mind to, he didn’t know what he’d do.

The Slytherin took a deep breath and mustered up all his courage to turn to look at the boy next to him when they came to the end of one flight of stairs. “Blaine-“  
“Kurt-“

They started exactly at the same time, with both their eyes wide and confusion written all over their faces.

Kurt ducked his head and breathed in sharp through his nose. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t even think about what I was saying I- I just hate the guy and I wanted to make my message as clear as I could and I- Honestly, I’m-”

“Kurt” The Hufflepuff said, his voice so soft Kurt raised his eyebrows quizzically at him on instinct. Wasn’t he supposed to be having a mental breakdown? “You’re rambling. Stop.”

“But I-“ Kurt was left with his mouth gaping open, his thoughts running into walls inside of his head as he tried to make sense of the situation. “We- I called you that. I called you my boyfriend in front of Sebastian” He said, declaring the perfectly obvious as if Blaine hadn’t been there.

“I know.”

“But we aren’t- Are we?” The Slytherin finally let himself ask out loud what he’d been wondering for days, and he kind of really hated how small and insecure his voice was coming out as. Considering how afraid of rejection he was, though, maybe he should’ve been thankful for being able to talk at all.

Blaine bit his lower lip, never looking away from Kurt’s breathtakingly blue eyes.

“Do you want us to be?” He asked, voice barely above a whisper.

“Of course” Kurt said before any filter between his mouth and brain could process and approve of the thought, almost outraged that Blaine was even asking him this. When he did realize what he’d said, he blushed and cleared his throat, only causing a smile to take over Blaine’s stunning features. “I mean, yeah. I do want you to be my boyfriend.”

“Okay.” The Hufflepuff said. “I mean, good. Because I want you to be mine, too.”

Although it was really silly, Kurt didn’t recall many times he’d been as relieved in his seventeen years of life. He exhaled loudly, letting out a quivering breath as a smile slowly formed on his lips as well. “Okay.”

Blaine also let out a breath he maybe hadn’t realized he was holding in, nodding with matching visible relief. This time around Kurt didn’t even try and convince himself that it was because of something related to his injury or something, but gave himself full credit – Every emotion reflecting on Blaine’s face was because of him.

It took the Hufflepuff a while with his limp, but he turned to face Kurt from head to toe and leaned forward to wrap his arms around his shoulders, Kurt’s remaining on his waist to keep him up steadily.

“I really admire you standing up for yourself, you know. Even if you could’ve done it nicer.” He said with a small smile, honey-hazel eyes glistening from said adoration, making Kurt’s heart do cartwheels.

“Nicer? No, not with him.” Kurt chuckled, shaking his head lightly. “Besides, I did what I did for us.”

“Well, thank you for standing up for us.”

Kurt just smiled, because he felt it was the only thing he could do without confessing his undying love for the boy, and they truly weren’t there yet. He quietly hoped they would be, eventually.

“Do you think you can deliver me back to where I belong, **boyfriend**? Seeing as I can’t really walk too well.” Blaine asked with a grin, shifting back to his earlier place of being pressed against Kurt’s side.

“I think that it’s your lucky day, **boyfriend**.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya guys!
> 
> I'm not even going to try and pull any of that 'writer's block, lack of motivation, busy doing stuff' ish on you mostly because it's all true and also because I have to admit that I can not follow a regular updating schedule. Therefore you are going to have to try and believe me when I say that I love you no less no matter how many times a week/month I update. 
> 
> I'm gon' graduate in under two months and this next month to my absolute devastation is going to be hectic AF. I'm going to pull through that with a smile and sunshines and rainbows, no worries, and I promise that I am writing, but uploading is a whole another thing. 
> 
> I do love you, very much, so I hope that you can kinda love me too even though I'm kind of a mess. Sometimes. Often?  
> I also love all these characters far too much to be leaving them alone for long periods, so. 
> 
> This is becoming the longest notes section ever but two more things;   
> 1\. I have relocated myself on tumblr. You can find me @ youumakemyheartgosuperwhee.tumblr.com  
> 2\. I have an account @ Scarves & Coffee! It's @ youmakemyheartgosuperwhee, just like this one
> 
> *Thinking that someone actually read this* Well, now, I can let you go forward.
> 
> I hope you enjoy! x

"They only stopped calling me a witch when they found out that I actually was one" Santana snorted at the conclusion of her own story, shaking her head as the two fourth year Slytherins sitting on the floor laughed and exclaimed it was the best thing they'd heard in a long while.

Just then Kurt walked into the common room with his arms crossed against his chest after listening to the storytelling session from the hall for a while, a small smile playing on his lips. "I’ve heard that a million times. You will too. It gets really boring around the fourth time" He said, aiming his words at the two girls who suddenly quieted and exchanged a few displeased looks before getting up and fleeting the room with a quick wave to Santana.

"I kind of hate you" The Latina declared with hardly any heat to match her words, turning towards him on the sofa. "What is it now, Hummel?"

The boy spent a very few moments debating whether or not he should be revealing the whole entire thing to her before explaining her his rather one-sided conversation with Sebastian in detail. Because quite frankly, as Slytherin or as badass he might’ve been, he needed someone to tell him that he’d done the right thing telling Sebastian off.

"Okay, wait a second. What?" Santana furrowed her brows after he’d finished, looking outraged. "Sebastian said all that to you? Oh, I'm gonna-"

Kurt held a hand up, gently pushing her back onto the sofa where she'd tried to get up from.

"You're not going to anything, Santana. And you clearly missed the part where I told you what exactly I said" He said, slightly frustrated. He'd been replaying the entire conversation over and over in his head and the more he did that, the more he found reasons to wish he never had said anything at all. He wouldn't say that aloud, not to Blaine especially, but he couldn't help feeling like Sebastian was only going to want more to do with him now that he knew how much he truly irritated him.

Perhaps he didn’t belong to Slytherin at all. He was incredibly proud of being one, but clearly it was beginning to show that he didn’t deserve his place in the house.

"No, that was great" Santana said simply, examining her long, red nails like they were far more important than the discussion at hand.

Kurt raised his brows at her, which she took as an invitation to keep going. "Yeah. I think it's about time someone called him out on his shit. Good job" She said and reached out to squeeze his shoulder.

"You have never said anything like that to him before?" He asked, not even trying to hide the disbelief in his voice.

"Yeah, I have, but I constantly yell at everyone so - needless to say, he wasn't very fazed."

There were a few silent moments of Kurt just trying to sit back on the sofa more comfortably before Santana spoke up again.

"So, you and Blaine" She said – not even asked, a grin spreading on her face. “I'm really happy for you”

Kurt ducked his head with a laugh, not even wanting to deny that there was nothing for her to be so happy about. There actually really was. 

”And I’m getting my wedding, too!” She exclaimed, shooting him a genuine grin to which he replied with an all but amused raise of eyebrows aimed at her.  

-

“Dude, where have you been for like - ten days?”

“What?” Blaine asked, furrowing his brows at Sam in confusion as he sat down next to him at the Hufflepuff house table for lunch. He truly loved Sam - he had been his best friend since their first year at Hogwarts, but more than often it was a challenge to get what his deal was. “Are you kidding? I spent approximately two hours out studying with Rachel. What kind of a question is that? If you're pulling some prank on me again Sam I swear to-”

The blond cut him off with a scoff and shook his head, his hair bouncing on his forehead. “What? No, not this time. Never mind. It just felt like a small forever. How’s your leg holding up?”

Blaine sighed and rolled his eyes so exaggeratingly at him he was glad Sam was paying more attention to the comic book in front of his eyes rather than him.

“It’s fine. It’ll be fine. It doesn’t bother me anymore. I don’t wince every time I need to put weight on it.”

“Yeah, okay” Sam nodded a couple of times, flipping to the next page of the comic book he was reading. “That’s good.”

Blaine raised his eyebrows at the other Hufflepuff and chuckled, truly amused at how little attention he was paying to him. He did have to admit that it was kind of a nice change to all the interrogations Sam had held for him ever since the accident. He was obviously grateful for his friends’ care and worry, but even that there could be too much of. “What’s that one about?” He asked, gesturing his hand towards the comic in his hands.  
Sam then proceeded to explain the entire plot of the story in the colorful still-pictures between the pages that Blaine really didn’t get in detail. Sure, he did understand the books in the way that many wizards didn’t – by all thanks to both his father and his older brother Cooper; he understood the process of how the creation of non-animated illustrations worked and found it absolutely hilarious how pure-blooded witches and wizards were so outraged by such a thing. He just didn’t quite get the appeal of the comics themselves anymore. He knew for a fact that his mum had saved his excessive comic book collections from when he was maybe ten years old, but like with many other things after all that happened to him in and post elementary school he’d completely lost interest in them.

“I’m also guessing that this guy-” Sam pointed at an inhumanly muscular figure in full-body silver armor “-is a jerk. I won't believe for a second that he's the good guy, and he will most definitely get assassinated by one of the actual guys sooner or later.”

“Or maybe you just haven’t read enough of the story yet. Maybe he is actually a great person but you have yet to find out, because he makes sure nobody knows him for nothing but being tough and- you know, a superhuman that can fly and lift up hundreds of thousands of pounds with just one hand” Blaine mindlessly offered - because that was the most typical plot that he could remember from all his comic books once upon a time, downing the last of the pumpkin juice left in the cup in front of him. 

“Who’s a great person?” A voice came from behind the two of them, causing Blaine to startle slightly before he came to register the voice and then the person who it belonged to sliding onto the bench right next to him.

“Kurt” The Hufflepuff cautiously glanced at Sam first, but he didn’t seem a single bit fazed. “You need to stop doing that” He said then, turning towards Kurt who was grinning at him, making it hard for him to try and not to smile as well.

“Yeah, sure. I’m sorry. But, see- I hate to repeat myself, who is this great person you were talking about?”

Sam scoffed, leaning on the table enough to look at Kurt past Blaine. ”Nobody in these comics, I’m telling you that much” He said, rolling up the book and tucking it under his arm. “Good to see you though, Kurt.”

“Oh-“ He breathed out, furrowing his brows momentarily in surprise at how genuine Sam’s words sounded. Kurt could count the times that they had had a conversation on one hand. Was this another Hufflepuff thing that he just wasn't going to understand? “You, too” He finally said back, deciding on just being decent for once.  
The blonde saluted them both and left, catching up to Quinn who was just leaving the Great hall at the same time.

Once Blaine had wished his goodbyes to his best friend, he turned back to Kurt. “To what do I owe this honor of seeing you now?” He asked, tilting his head to one side with a small smile.

“I just wanted to come and talk to you. Really no other motive for me here. Isn’t that kind of what relationships are about, or do we still need excuses to spend time together?” Kurt quirked up an eyebrow with a teasing smile to match Blaine’s and before he had time to react in any way, the Slytherin’s hand was on top of his, squeezing it gently.

When he caught up to realize that, he stared at the boy with wide eyes, not quite knowing what to do.

“Kurt?”

“It’s fine. There’s barely anyone here” He assured, voice barely above a whisper and eyes suddenly so kind and warm on him he couldn’t look away. “But if it makes you feel better-“ Kurt grabbed a light yellow, unused napkin and placed it on top of their linked hands on top of the table. “There.”  
Blaine took one look at the constellation that was their hands and the napkin and burst out laughing, immediately covering his mouth with his free hand. “Okay” He said after he’d recovered a little, looking Kurt in the eyes with what he hoped came across as the sheer adoration bubbling inside of him. “The sorting hat must’ve had a tough time six years back. Are you sure you don’t belong to Ravenclaw?”

Kurt chuckled, shaking his head. “Mock all you want, but it actually did. I was almost placed into Ravenclaw.”

“You’re joking” The Hufflepuff said with a small smile. He did believe what Kurt was saying, but he enjoyed being the one to get to tease Kurt for once and not the other way around.

“I swear, I’m not. Now I’m sure you will tell me the hat had a long monologue on how you should be a Slytherin but because of the capability of your heart and soul to find and cherish the best in everyone, you are a Hufflepuff from birth. I’m right, aren’t I?” Kurt was grinning widely now, nudging Blaine with his shoulder in a light-hearted, teasing manner.

“As a matter of fact, you are. I am a Hufflepuff from birth” He said diplomatically, having a hard time keeping a straight face. “But no to the Slytherin part, sorry. I was actually considered to be a Gryffindor at first.”

The Slytherin just stared at him for a moment before making the effort to scrunch up his nose in tad too forced disgust to be really taken seriously. He shook his head then, chuckling lightly. “But I’m kidding, you know? You do find and see the best in everyone and that’s why you’re such a good person. Well, that’s an understatement. You’re really the best of every good person in the world.”

Blaine slowly looked up at him from where he'd glanced down at his shoes, shooting him a fully disbelieving look while his heart began stammering wildly in his chest. It was one of the funniest things he’d ever felt, but despite everything it was starting to become one of his favorites because only Kurt could make it happen.

“So, my sorting story doesn’t put you off?” Blaine asked jokingly just because he didn’t know what else he could possibly say because, you know - he’d just perfectly casually been called the best of all the decent people in existence.

“Oh, no. It does. That is incredibly upsetting. Lucky for the both of us, you are more than just your house or the house you were almost put in” Kurt smiled, so open and honest yet amused that Blaine wasn’t sure how he’d made it this far in his life without seeing just that, every day.

The Hufflepuff let a soft chuckle escape from his lips as he shook his head at Kurt’s comment and tossed the napkin aside from on top of their hands. "So are you, so we're good."

“Now that you’ve confessed that you are a scientific genius, would you uhm- Can you help me with an assignment? I've been trying to finish this thing for Transfiguration for days now and I have come to accept that I won't be getting it done in time alone.” Blaine didn’t let go of his hand, and he refused to start looking around himself like some scared woodland creature, instead focusing fully on the boy in front of him. Kurt had come quite clear to Sebastian about certain things already and been incredibly brave, so that was the least he could do.

Kurt bit the inside of his cheek, letting his gaze wonder away from Blaine for the briefest fracture of a second before focusing right back on him. With a nod and a smile, he said; “I can’t promise anything, but of course.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya! 
> 
> I'm done, ya guys. I'm free from exams and papers and essays and all of that ish. 
> 
> What does that mean then?  
> Two things;  
> 1\. I'm graduating in two weeks (yikes and yay)  
> 2\. I have so much time in my hands that I will be able to devote so much more of my time to writing (yay)
> 
> Did I mention how much my perfectionist self has been holding back on all this stuff I have written? No? Well I'm telling you now. I'm working on it. 
> 
> I love you. I hope you enjoy!

"There's no way I'm ever going to be able to do this."

It had been a while since Blaine had began trying to write his paper on ancient runes with the help of Kurt without much success. Way, way too much blood and sweat had went into writing five lousy sentences on just about how he had been assigned the topic of the paper. He knew he had done some quite excessive research on this paper previously, but it was as if all of it had disappeared in the form of smoke from his brain.

"I’m sure there is."

"Kurt, I have read the book inside out and then outside in - I know nothing about runes, still" Blaine all but whined, perfectly, completely frustrated. He wasn’t used to having so much trouble with school work. Everything had always been fairly easy for him and if it hadn’t, he’d worked and worked and worked until he'd understood. This was new and horribly, horribly depressing.

Kurt looked at the Hufflepuff, rolling his eyes at him. He found his boyfriend's behavior endearing and frustrating all the same, because he didn't really enjoy watching him struggle so much with something as stupid as this. Especially when the Slytherin himself had gotten Outstandings from every exam and assignment he’d ever done on runes.

“I, uh- I sort of do. Runes have kinda always been my strong suit.” 

Blaine looked up at the boy, his eyes growing twice in size. “They have?” He asked, all kinds of emotions from relief to admiration flashing across his face. 

“Yeah. I swear. I have a whole collection of graded papers and exams saved, all of them full of notes from the Professor praising my knowledge of ancient writing” Kurt admitted maybe even a bit bashfully.  
“I know the most stereotypical thing to think us Slytherins are good at is defence against dark arts and maybe that's partially true, but Professor Washington has never liked me. But DADA classes are stupid anyway. If you’re sharp enough it’s all manageable without any classes at all. But runes I have always liked and understood from the very first class I ever took. They just made sense to me. And I will make them make sense to you, too. At least enough to finish that damn paper.”

The Hufflepuff simply nodded, silently incredibly grateful that Kurt was trying so hard to help him

"I'm sure you remember the numbers. What is the ancient rune for number two?" He then asked, pushing the blank piece of paper closer to him on the table.

Blaine grabbed the quill with a sigh, dipped it in ink and began scribbling what kind of resembled a Viking helmet he vaguely remembered was equal to the number two on the paper. By Kurt’s vigorous nodding he could tell that he remembered correctly.

"Yeah, that's it. Great!" The Slytherin confirmed, getting a quill of his own from the pile of school supplies on the desk. He reached for the paper in front of Blaine and drew a tiny smiley face in the top corner of it. 

Blaine chuckled and leaned his head down on Kurt’s shoulder. Kurt wrapped his arm around the boy’s waist.

“I don’t understand how this is so hard for me. And I’ve worked. I’ve worked a lot, Kurt. I read every book they have in the library about this. And I just won’t learn. It’s really frustrating” He sighed loudly, shaking his head a little against the other boy’s shoulder. 

“You know you can’t be good at everything, right? You are allowed to not thrive at every single thing you do” Kurt started softly, carding his fingers through Blaine’s for once untamed curls. 

He knew very well what kind of things Blaine and the house he belonged in valued, and one of those things were working hard and achieving things because of that. He also knew that Blaine had taken this a step or two further than needed. From what he knew Blaine was an overachiever, and a massive massive one of those. If it was hard enough for him to settle for anything less than a perfect result in anything and everything, accepting the fact that even through hard work and perspiration he couldn’t be great at something was a whole new thing. This was exactly why Kurt wanted and needed to be so gentle about it. He needed him to understand that it was more than okay.

“You probably think I’m so stupid right now” The Hufflepuff chuckled humorlessly, setting the quill back on the table.

“What? No” Kurt tried his hardest not to sound offended, because he could never possibly describe Blaine with an adjective that had a negative tone to it. Ever. “Although I do have to say that you’re being incredibly stupid thinking that I would think that of you.”

“Blaine, you are good at so many things. It’s absolutely ridiculous” Kurt chuckled, causing Blaine to blush and his face turn a very light pink. 

“If you don’t know runes beyond the basic numbers from one to ten et cetera – so what? Will you need them when you pursue your career ‘making art and helping people – with magic or without’?” Kurt would never forget the look on Blaine’s face when he had asked about the boy’s future hopes and dreams and he’d talked about them for a solid five minutes before asking Kurt for his in return. “You won’t. I know you have a hard time with letting things go, but some things you just need to.”

Another deep sigh escaped the Hufflepuff’s lips. 

“I know” He simply said, well aware that Kurt was absolutely right. “I still need to pass the class though, so I need to learn.” 

“And I will help you do that” Kurt said determinedly, giving the boy’s side a gentle squeeze.

Blaine was about to scoot his chair a little father from Kurt so that he wasn’t sitting on his lap rather than on the very chair, but Kurt held onto him, refusing to let him move away an inch. 

“Are you serious?” He asked, extremely amused but secretly very happy that he was practically glued to Kurt from toe to shoulder. He wouldn’t rather have had it any other way, honestly.

“You should know that I take holding my boyfriend close to me very seriously” Declared Kurt with a hand over his heart and a grinning smile. 

Not thirty minutes went by before Kurt had managed to get Blaine to draw and memorize the first ten plus numbers of the runes on the same stray paper he’d started with. His actual essay paper still sat on the farthest corner of the desk untouched though – with the exception of the five meaningless sentences. 

Blaine reached for the four stacked papers that hopefully would turn out to be his finished paper somewhere in the close future and pulled them closer to himself. He turned to look at Kurt whose icy blue eyes were already on him. 

“So what can you tell me about runes?” 

Kurt looked around the empty Hufflepuff common room – where he wasn’t necessarily supposed to be in at all, trying to recall things from class he was pretty sure nobody else had really paid attention to because they weren’t all that interesting to them. 

“Oh, okay-“ Kurt tore off a piece of paper from a notebook as the realization hit him and drew a rune in the corner of it that kind of looked like a very sharp version of the letter P. 

“This-“ He looked at Blaine to check that he was following. “-means joy. Our professor told us that the runes that resemble emotions were often used as tattoos. Each emotion rune would remind the person they were tattooed on of a certain person.”

“Oh. How do you remember that?” Blaine asked in awe. Kurt just tapped his temple with his index finger a couple of times and smiled appreciatively.  
“So I could easily have had the joy rune tattooed on me – resembling you?” 

The Slytherin ducked his head, feeling the urge to laugh at himself for turning into goo because of the smallest nice thing Blaine said to him. He had that effect on him, he’d noticed: and he wasn't going to complain. 

“Yeah, I guess so” He finally managed, shooting very subtle heart eyes the other boy’s way. “And I-“ He began to scribble down another rune – one that looked a lot like a lightning. “-Could have the sun rune tattooed on me, to remind me of you.”

“Why the sun?” Kurt could hear the smile through Blaine’s words although his eyes were glued on the sun rune on the paper. 

“Because-“ He started, now looking up to find Blaine smiling at him, his eyes shining in delight. “-even the sun can’t live up to the way you light up any room.” 

“And you call me sappy” Blaine’s smile was soft and centered and so wide it reached all the way up to his eyes as well as his ears. “How dare you, Kurt Hummel?” He questioned, the love he already felt for the Slytherin expanding in his chest at the words that were incredibly corny but made his heart flutter like no other. 

“And I stand by my words. But I’m allowed to be sappy as well, aren’t I? You’re not the only one who can do that” Kurt answered with a grin, gently nudging Blaine's side with his elbow.

“I kind of love you” Blaine said, with his eyes fixated on the books and papers in front of him. At least until he realized exactly what he'd said. 

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. This was not how anything should've gone.

He looked up at Kurt in panic, eyes wide in shock horror, holding his breath. Yet he couldn't say anything. He couldn't deny it or go dismissing his words, because they were true. Blaine had spent more time than he'd ever admit thinking about and analyzing his feelings for Kurt and the things between them, searching his heart for what exactly he felt. He overthought, because that's what he often did. Over analyzed.  
He surely couldn't say that he had a crush on Kurt anymore, that he was certain of. That phase had lasted well over two years and that was more than enough for him. Besides, they were dating, weren't they? Although he lacked any experience or knowledge of relationships he knew that that changed things.  
And it had definitely changed things. Scarily quickly he had found that what he was feeling was something much deeper than what he'd initially thought. Sure, the fact that he'd already thought about spending his life together with the person he'd been with for such a small amount of time spoke volumes, but the actual realization had really crept up on him. He was in love, and it was a new and scary concept of it's own.  
What made it all the more scary was him not being able to read Kurt's mind and know how he felt. But to potentially being seconds away from knowing turned out to be even worse. 

Kurt's reaction to the confession wasn't much different from Blaine's. Still, his facial expression was somehow much softer.

After what to Blaine seemed like a forever Kurt blinked a few times, shook his head and exhaled deeply. He looked right into Blaine's honey-caramel eyes as his lips slowly formed into a small smile, making Blaine's heart swoop. 

"I love you, too."

Maybe it was that he could breathe again or maybe it was the massive rock that fell off of his heart as he heard Kurt say those words, but Blaine felt like he was ten feet tall. He exhaled very audibly, rubbing a hand over his face as Kurt chuckled at him affectionately. 

"Come here" The Slytherin murmured, not leaving much choice to the boy before cupping his cheek and turning his face fully towards him before leaning in to press their lips together. Blaine didn't need a choice though, and just how much he was smiling into the kiss was an indication of that.  
Suddenly, in that moment, that was all that mattered in the world.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys! I've graduated and I have two and a half months of summer vacation ahead of me! Whee! 
> 
> My obvious plan is to do lots of writing, and I'm actually really excited to bring this plan to life without any school stuff being in the way.
> 
> I'm not a student of any school at the moment, actually. Which is a super weird feeling. I should be getting a letter in a lil' under two weeks about what the next chapter will hold (in addition to expensive af books and jitters). Fingers crossed!
> 
> All this has nothing to do with this story.... *cough* Yeah well all I gotta say about this chapter is that it's a little teeny tiny bit angsty, but it's all good. 
> 
> As always thanks a ton for reading and all that jazz & I hope you enjoy!

Kurt could without hesitation say that he’d been in love with Blaine from the very second he first laid eyes on the boy, but he was so, so wickedly in love with him now that they'd been together for a while. What he found funny was that not many things had that drastically changed in that time. They’d gotten to know each other better, but they were still as comfortable with the other as they’d been from the very beginning. 

It had been well over a month since Kurt and Blaine had officially become a couple but the four weeks felt like they’d been three times longer. The two had spent merely every second out of class together, whether it had been doing homework, having picnics by the lake way after the time they were supposed to be in sleeping or just walking around enjoying the perfectly comfortable silence between them, hand in hand, caring less and less what anyone might have thought or had to say about it every day.  
This was at least until Kurt arrived to the Monday morning Transfiguration class that happened to be one of the few classes that they shared and Blaine was nowhere to be seen. 

This didn’t worry Kurt so much at first (realistically maybe for the first five minutes). After the class was dismissed, the Slytherin independently decided to ditch the rest of his classes for the day and tried searching for Blaine around the castle instead. He even went as far as asking Sam if he knew where the boy was, but he got no answer from him whatsoever. He didn't seem to know anything at all. He then tried to be reasonable and figured the Hufflepuff was just having a sick day and would be back in shape shortly.

However, when he didn’t see him in History of Magic on Tuesday nor in Transfiguration again on Thursday, he became really worried. Really the feeling was more like a gut-wrenching dread rather than plain worry. Kurt had already managed to think of a dozen different horrifying scenarios because of which he hadn't seen or heard from Blaine in so long and was kind of driving himself crazy. It didn't help that his housemates too seemed to be nowhere to be found. How was it that all of the other god forsaken Hufflepuffs had disappeared into thin air the one time he needed them to be around?

When late Thursday afternoon the Slytherin quite literally walked into Rachel Berry on his way to the Slytherin common room he almost started jumping up and down in mixed joy and relief- Rachel Berry always knew everything about everything. 

“Hey, Rachel!” He exclaimed, grabbing the petite girl by her arms to keep her from running away. He doubted she would do such a thing now that he was with Blaine and they’d met and talked several times (she’d even very much aloud announced that she ‘hadn’t expected to like him, but things turned out differently’ with a proud smile) but he wouldn’t take the risk. She certainly didn't look like she was about to run away. She just looked worried. 

“I’m so sorry” He said first, smoothing over the wrinkles he’d created in the fabric of her robes around the shoulders. “Have you seen Blaine, at all, recently?”

Rachel just stared at him in the eyes for a moment before biting her lower lip, moving her gaze to be fixated on something behind him instead of his face. “No- I, uh- He hasn’t… You haven’t talked to him all week?” She asked, sounding very quiet and unsure compared to her usual very loud and confident self.

“No. I haven’t. I tried looking for him and even asked Sam but he didn’t seem to know anything” Kurt sighed deeply, feeling the unsettling feeling of excruciating dread seeping into his every bone again.

“Well, I- I know, but I don’t know if he wants me to-“ The girl said, audibly and visibly very uncomfortable, twisting the Gryffindor colored tie around her neck with her fingers.

“Rachel” Kurt found that he wasn’t above pleading right now, eyes attentive on Rachel with an expression he hoped came across desperate enough for her to tell him something – anything.

The girl sighed and looked Kurt in the eyes with her chocolate brown ones. “I don’t know if he’s told you-“ She started, very very hesitant. “About when he had depression, when he was smaller?”

Kurt swallowed thickly, nodding. “He did tell me.”

“And how he recovered, too?”

The boy nodded again. 

“Well, see- I’ve known Blaine since we were both only ten years old and what I’ve learned from following his journey is that depression’s not quite that black and white. Mental health isn't, anyway. He doesn’t talk about it, chooses to not shine a light on it, but he still gets to these very low points, sometimes. Also, he’s had horrible, occasional anxiety for several years now.” With every word that she said Kurt found his throat closing up more. "Generalized anxiety, I think is what it's called."

“He- He’s alright though, right? Please tell me that he’s okay” He said, voice barely audible. 

“Well, yeah. He’s not physically sick or hurt or anything, but he’s having a really tough time.”

He wasn’t sure if the conversation had ended or not, but for him it had. He simply nodded at Rachel and turned on his heels, determined to get into the Hufflepuff common room. He walked down several sets of stairs and not after long he was standing in the kitchen corridor, the stack of barrels that led to the room in front of him. 

“Okay” He said under his breath, setting both of his hands on both sides of the barrel that he knew was the door, wishing that maybe he could magically get it to open with just willpower. He needed it to open.

“Honey, it’s not going to open that way” Came Rachel’s soft voice from behind him almost instantly after his hands touched the wooden surface. She’d known, and followed him down. Kurt didn’t know that he could feel so grateful towards Rachel Berry. 

She swiftly moved in front of him and rhythmically tapped one of the middle barrels, revealing the entrance to the room. 

“Thank you” The Slytherin smiled weakly at Rachel, going in through the door.

“You’re really good for him, you know. I’m glad it’s you he’s with” Rachel smiled back just before Kurt had disappeared into the room, turning to walk away with a tiny wave of her hand – much to Kurt’s relief. Such a comment made his head buzz and heart beat so fast he wasn’t even sure what to respond. Which was weird, because he’d never really been one to crave validation or need anyone’s acceptance. He guessed that was just another thing loving someone had changed about him.

He made sure to close the round door behind him and from there Kurt easily made his way across the surprisingly empty common room to the boys’ dormitory where he could only assume Blaine was at. 

But when he pushed open the wooden door and went in, he did so only to see that the room also was empty - At least until the same door he’d come through just seconds ago opened and closed right after him, causing him to turn around and be faced with just the boy that he was looking for. 

The Hufflepuff's reaction went from almost completely blank to such a sad one Kurt couldn’t help but surge forward and wrap the boy in his arms, gently pulling his head against his chest. 

“God, Kurt, I’m so sorry. I don’t even know what to say" Blaine wrapped his arms around Kurt's waist, squeezing his eyes shut. "Everything got so overwhelming and I- I think I told Rachel not to tell anyone about- and I just couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed and come talk to you and I definitely don’t deserve to have you in my life at all” He looked up right into Kurt’s eyes and his honey-caramel ones were so wet and miserable Kurt didn’t know which way he should be. His heart was breaking right in his chest.

“No, Blaine, honey- What are you talking about? Everything is okay, as long as you are” And although he clearly wasn’t okay, despite how much it hurt to feel the trembling of the boy’s hands around his waist he was so grateful to have him there – not dead or physically harmed as he'd been in all of his worst case scenarios. 

Kurt moved his hands so that he was cupping Blaine’s face from both sides. He had to lean down just the slightest bit to be able to press a feather light kiss on his forehead, then on the top of his head. “Do you want to talk now?” He asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Blaine squeezed at Kurt’s waist where his hands still were resting, nodding. He sniffled – which felt much more like another stab in the gut to Kurt, and released a deep and quivering breath. “Yeah, I guess.” 

The taller boy guided them both on The Hufflepuff’s bed which he could identify by the fact that it was done the neatest and next to it was a bed that was flooded with papers and books and comics, very obviously being Sam’s. They both sat down simultaneously on the edge of the bed, over the light yellow bedspread. “You don’t need to if you don’t want to, you know. If it makes you uncomfortable at all-“

Blaine shook his head. “No” He said, moving his hand to grab Kurt’s, squeezing it gently with a soft, teary smile. “I want to. You deserve to know.”

Kurt nodded, giving him an attempt of a smile in return. “Okay.” 

There was a moment where Kurt patiently sat there with Blaine in his arms, listening to him taking a quivering breath after another, waiting for him to be ready and prepared to open up his soul to him. The fact that he was even considering doing just that, trying to let him in to something that he was at times even ashamed of made Kurt somehow feel so trusted and grateful that the boy chose just him to share his best and worst with. 

“So-“ Blaine started, adjusting his seating position on the bed slightly. “I assume Rachel already told you something. About the anxiety…”

“She did” Kurt simply said, softly rubbing his boyfriend’s cheek with his thumb. 

“Uh, so that’s something that I’ve dealt with for as long as I can remember, really” He said, reaching to rub the back of his neck. “And at first I thought that it was just a gift that depression granted me after it left, but it isn’t. I’ve heard that I was a really anxious kid and actually I can even remember some situations I was weirdly uncomfortable and anxious in for no apparent reason when I was little.”

Kurt nodded as he listened to the Hufflepuff talk, knowing that just that and holding his hands as tight against him as he could was all he could do. “What happened this week, then?”

The frustration on Blaine’s face, in his frown and knitted-together eyebrows spoke volumes – loud and clear. “Nothing. Nothing happened” He swallowed thickly “That’s the thing with generalized anxiety - The thing that makes it- so hard to deal with. There is always this certain level of anxiety I feel at all times. It’s like I’m kind of freaking out about 90% of the time. And it doesn’t necessarily show because I try not to let it, but it’s there. Then there are times like now when I just can’t get anything done because the anxiety is so intense, so persistent, like some sort of animal pouncing on me continuously”  
“It’s exhausting” He said with his voice just barely above a whisper.

“I woke up on Monday and there was this horrible, familiar tightness in my chest that I couldn’t look past and go on with my day with. There was nothing that could’ve got me out of bed. I couldn’t bring myself to get up and face the world although what I would’ve faced would’ve been these castle walls – the same ones that were completely fine just a day ago” A humorless chuckle escaped his mouth and the Slytherin pulled the boy even closer to himself. “And although I wanted to there was nothing I couldn’t do about it that day. Or the next. Or the next two after that” A sudden, small tear rolled down his cheek. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Don’t apologize. There is nothing you should be sorry for. None of that is your fault, honey” Kurt assured in whispers, other hand rising back up to hold the side of Blaine’s face. 

“Except that it kind of is. I get so stuck inside of my head. The things that I used to feel so long ago come rushing back to me at times like these and I feel perfectly incapable of doing anything. Still I want to sort that all out on myself even though I know I can’t. That's all me" He exhaled, so scared that he wouldn't be able to properly explain this all to his boyfriend. "And I wanted to talk to you, I really did, but I was so ashamed and afraid.”

“Why?” Kurt asked, his voice cracking completely against his will.

“I was convinced that you would hate me and never want to talk to me again” The tears that had been pooling in Blaine’s eyes from the start flooded over, making their way down his face. “And I- I knew and I know that it’s completely irrational, but anxiety makes it really easy for me to get convinced that these irrational thoughts are real. Kurt, If I ever lose you I’m afraid I will never be okay again. I can’t even remember a time when I was as happy as I am now with you and I was sure if you found out about all this baggage that I have I-“ Blaine knew that he was rambling. He was rambling so much. “I feel so stupid.”

“Hey, shh” The Slytherin’s heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest, the held back tears of his were burning a hole in the back of his throat. “Blaine. All those thoughts that you had are truly so, very irrational. But you shouldn’t feel stupid cause you’re not stupid. So far from. The fact that you have to feel these things is stupid. And you should know that I could never hate you. Ever. As your boyfriend my absolute honor is to stand by you in every moment and mood, whatever you’re dealing with, always without exception”  
“You’re going to be fine, Blaine. We will be fine. Your life will be fine.” 

There was a long moment during which neither one of them said anything, just sat there holding each other in comfortable but still somewhat a pressing silence. Then Blaine slowly lifted his head up with the smallest smile on his face.

“I know. I know now. I don't know- Well I do, why I thought otherwise but now I know” He said quietly, looking up at Kurt with his previously such sad, terrified eyes full of so much love and trust and certainty. “My life’s going to be fine because you’re in it.”

Kurt smiled down on him, his heart expanding to about twice its normal size in his chest. “And you can be sure I’ll stay in it.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya! :) 
> 
> I think that this is the longest chapter to this story so far, and that is because you had to wait so damn long for the update. Also because when I start with the emotions there's no stoppin' me.
> 
> I don't know why I always ramble here, thinking that the AN is my diary. It is not!
> 
> But still, it's my birthday tomorrow, so the best of gifts ever would be your amazing feedback. It is truly & greatly & very appreciated.
> 
> I love yalls. Have a great day.  
> & Enjoy!

“So you finally realized you could never have any chance of winning against us and quit quidditch, huh? About time.” 

Blaine squeezed his eyes shut, pressing the stack of books he was carrying tighter against his chest. He didn’t need to turn around to know who the boy talking to him was. Panic started swelling in his chest until he managed to talk himself out of it enough to turn around and lift his head up slightly higher to mimic confidence.  
This person had nothing on him. He was nothing but an inconsiderate, prejudiced person whom Blaine wanted nothing to do with. He didn’t get to make Blaine feel any type of way.

“Excuse me?” He simply asked, looking at Sebastian with his both eyebrows raised. 

He didn’t like this boy. Yes, partly because Kurt didn’t. His boyfriend despised him, so he automatically didn’t like him. That was just how it worked. Considering what Sebastian had put them through, though, he didn’t really make it hard to dislike him. It came very easily, even for Blaine.

Sebastian shrugged his shoulders then, to Blaine’s utter relief not making any moves on coming closer. “Just haven’t seen you playing much, so I just assumed you’d quit.”

“So you’d wish” Blaine found himself muttering before moving to walk past Sebastian to head to his originally planned destination – the library. 

“I was actually wondering if you’d left this place completely, as I didn’t see you around for a while” The boy kept going, making Blaine feel more uncomfortable by the second.

“You were looking for me?” He asked blankly, raising his brows slightly.

Sebastian laughed. “You can call it that.”

Blaine had absolutely no idea what the Slytherin was talking about but he had no intention to find out. There was absolutely no way he was going to waste any more of his time on this person. Not today, anyway. 

“Nice talking to you.” 

And with that, he walked away.

-

"Santana, I need none of this right now" Kurt stopped Santana mid-sentence, interrupting her endless, rambling talk of whatever Kurt had registered maybe ten percent of.

The girl turned on her heels just to look at Kurt in the eyes with the most disbelieving, disapproving glare. "Excuse me? You say that like there are a billion problems that you're dealing with right about now, when in reality you have none that I know of. Your schoolwork is going as it always has, no professor hates you no more than they did a week ago, your robes are spotless and you have a stunning boyfriend who loves you" She listed with her fingers, looking up at Kurt after each thing to see if he would try to deny them. 

When he said nothing - because 1) he didn’t want to waste his limited energy on arguing about something so stupid with her and 2) because he was really in no place to argue with her statement, Santana sighed and shook her head a little. "Listen. I’m not saying you’re not entitled to your trouble, whatever it might be, but I need you here. So just hush and be a decent friend for a couple of minutes, okay?" She asked. Kurt wanted to disapprove instantly but chose to keep with his initial line of thought of avoiding conflict, nodding reluctantly.

"Fine. But if wherever this is going includes using me as a messenger bird-“ Kurt pointed his index finger at Santana, shooting her a glare of his own. “Don’t even bother.”

Santana scoffed, crossing her arms across her chest. “Oh come on. It’s really simple. Not a big deal. I just need you to go ask Britt a few questions for me.”

Kurt huffed in sheer annoyance, shaking his head vigorously as he got up. “No. Absolutely not” He said “If it’s not a big deal, you can do it yourself. Take this as a push of encouragement to for once handle your stuff on your own, okay?” If Santana was going to cross a line then sure as hell was Kurt. 

“I’ll see you at dinner” He called on his way out, not staying to listen Santana’s further whining and complaints. 

Of course on his way out of the castle – on his quest to run away from a from time-to-time unbearable Slytherin, he managed to run into another one. Only this one was unbearable at all times, without exception.

Sebastian walked over to Kurt with the everlasting smug smile on his face, hands stuffed deep into the pockets of his robes. “Hey, Hummel. I haven’t seen you a lot in practice lately.”

“You’re blind, Smythe. I’ve been in each stupid one of your training sessions ever since you were chosen captain” Kurt announced dismissively, starting to walk away from the boy when he grabbed his shoulder sternly.

With a death glare shot towards Sebastian, he took his hand off of him and raised his hands up above his head. “Relax, Hummel. I just want to catch up with my fellow Slytherin.”

“Not feeling like that today, but thanks” Kurt muttered through his gritted teeth, pulling out his wand just to twirl it around in his hands, hoping to indicate that he wasn’t afraid of using it. In the muggle world he could’ve easily just gotten a restraining order, but in this world he needed to use magic for that which was a tad more complicated – but also much, much more satisfying when it came down to it.

Sebastian took one look at the wand in his hands, smiling in amusement. He didn’t say anything though, until he did – and Kurt wanted to be somewhere completely else. 

“How’s your boyfriend doing? Also actively attending quidditch practice without exception? Cause that I know he hasn’t.”

“Okay, Sebastian-“ Kurt snapped, taking one big brisk step towards the boy. “You don’t know the first thing about Blaine. And that's how it should be. You shouldn’t know, cause it’s none of your god damn business.”

“He’s had a really tough time with you, I understand,” He went on without taking any interest in Kurt’s words, as per usual. “I mean, there is no reason for me to not assume that his mental breakdown was your fault. He didn’t care to clear it with me, but-”

“You talked to him?” Kurt asked, not even trying to hide how outraged he was. Sebastian got his kicks out of pissing him off, he knew, but he couldn’t help himself. This was about Blaine, not him.

“Uh” Sebastian furrowed his eyebrows at him. “Yeah. I did” He said with a nod as if prying Blaine for details about his personal life was like transforming a snail into a teapot – completely casual and acceptable.

See, Sebastian did a lot of things that Kurt didn’t agree with. He didn’t have any kind of manners or morals and went around talking crap and was just an intolerable person in general, but this all was crossing a line. This wasn’t Sebastian doing something Kurt disagreed with. This was Sebastian being a senseless person. He had absolutely no right to talk about Blaine the way he did, especially not the things he struggled with – and Kurt needed to get that across to him. 

“I told you to stay far, far away from my boyfriend.”

“Gee, it’s not like you own him or something, do you?”

Kurt gaped at him in disbelief. “You’re an idiot, Smythe. Of course not!” He exclaimed. “But you’re a horrible person, Sebastian. Blaine is not. The two of you don’t belong into the same environment, okay. Blaine doesn’t deserve to be treated badly by a bad person.”  
“And If I recall totally correctly, you were very intent on distancing us completely just several months ago. I don’t have a reason not to believe that you are not after the same outcome still. I don’t want you around him.”

“No, certainly not” The other Slytherin stated calmly. “But I did have a motive then. Maybe still do.”  
“I know for a fact that we could make a far hotter, far better couple than you two do. Even if it was just for show. I also know that I would enjoy it immensely either way.”

Kurt laughed – actually laughed at Sebastian, not believing his ears. 

“Look, I was just looking out for you. You’re insufferable, he’s kind. You look the way you do, he’s hot. And then there’s that thing where he has high authority, as do I, and you play in the team that I am captain of. Clearly there is something wrong here, don’t you think?”

“Yeah” Kurt scoffed completely humorlessly, shaking his buzzing head a little. He wasn’t sure if he felt like he would soon actually, physically attack Sebastian or just faint because of how sick he was suddenly feeling. “The fact that you see yourself – the most heartless, senseless person with someone as moral and compassionate as Blaine is so, so wrong and it only proves how selfish and inconsiderate you are. Thank you for clearing that up for me.” He said, gritting his teeth together so hard he was surprised they weren’t breaking right there and then.

“Hummel, I will find a way to get what I-“

Kurt wasn’t going to stay there for another second. 

“No. Just know that you can talk trash about me to my face, to anyone – as much as you want” He looked at him in the eyes for a singular second in attempt to make his point very clear. “Just stay away from my boyfriend, Smythe” He said and turned around, heading back where he’d come from. 

His best friend’s girlfriend-trouble shenanigans were nothing but delightful in comparison to this. 

He made it to the common room in mere ten seconds with his throat tight and jaw clenched to the point where it would most probably result in a big-time headache, seeing Santana sitting on the floor with a stack of letters in her lap. 

She turned to look up at Kurt immediately after the door closed behind him. 

“Hey, Hummel” She got up quickly, hurrying to the boy with wide, confused eyes. “What’s wrong?”

Kurt couldn’t even say it aloud. Just the thought of having to repeat some of the things Sebastian had said made his throat close up further. He really just needed to talk with Blaine. 

“I, uh- I-I need to see Blaine.”

“Do you need me?” She asked, dark hazel eyes filled with genuine concern Kurt would’ve been overwhelmed by if not given the state of anger and shock he was in.

“No. Thanks, but I just- I need to-.”

“Then go” The girl said in as kind a voice as she could muster, taking his shoulders and gently pushing him out of the door. 

Before he was even out of the hallway their common room was located on, he walked right into Blaine.

“Oh” Blaine exclaimed, grabbing Kurt’s elbows to steady him on his feet. “Hi.” 

One look at Kurt made Blaine’s face fall and his heart drop to his feet. Something was so clearly wrong and he didn’t know if he wanted to know what or not. 

“Kurt, what is it?” He asked despite himself, knowing that if whatever was bothering Kurt made him look so out of place he needed to know what it was.

The Slytherin looked at the boy and took in his wide, worried liquid-honey eyes, his chest growing tighter. “Nothing. Sebastian just- He’s a moron. But that’s not news.”

Blaine wrapped his arms around Kurt’s waist and pulled him to sit down on the closest bench on the hallway, sitting right next to him. “What happened?” He asked, voice barely above a whisper. 

Kurt ducked his head down, pressing a hand to his temple. He felt so stupid for letting Sebastian get into his head. “He told me that you two talked.”

The Hufflepuff simply nodded. “Okay.”

“He can’t talk to you like that, Blaine. It-“ Kurt exhaled, squeezing his eyes shut. “It’s not right. You don’t deserve to be talked like that to.”

Blaine sighed. He lifted Kurt’s head up by his chin and cupped his cheeks, turning his face towards his own. “I understand. But that can’t possibly be the only thing he said.”

Kurt swallowed. “No” He admitted. “A while ago he came to me and told me to stay away from you, claiming that it was bad for the Slytherin house team’s façade.”

Blaine nodded again, encouraging his boyfriend to continue even though his heart clenched at the words he was hearing already. 

“Now he told me that his ulterior motive was to break us up so that he could have a chance with you.” 

Blaine’s breath hitched in his throat. He blinked rapidly several times, trying to process what Kurt had told him. “He said that?”

It was Kurt’s turn to nod. “He then proceeded to basically tell me why I’m not worthy of being with you, and how any problems that you have are surely my fault and-“ He wasn’t sure at what point his eyes had started stinging so much, salty tears of sheer anger blurring his vision. Sooner than he knew they were running down his cheeks. “I just found myself wondering if that is how it actually is, and well-“

“Honey” Blaine gasped sharply, feeling his heart being stabbed at the sight of Kurt’s tears. “No. It is not. You are talking about Sebastian. Sebastian who is quite frankly the face of the stereotypical, horrible Slytherins. Sebastian who doesn’t know me, who doesn’t know you. Sebastian who – most importantly, doesn’t know us” He said, brushing his thumb across Kurt’s cheek, catching a single falling tear with it.

“I’m just so angry-” Kurt said honestly, clutching onto Blaine’s back with his both hands in tight fists. “That he has this effect on me. That I let him affect me like this” He chuckled humorlessly, looking up at the ceiling, “God, that I let him affect you! Treat you the way he does! Talk about you like he knows you when he doesn’t.” 

Blaine bit the inside of his lip, fighting back his own tears. The desperation and frustration were so audible in Kurt’s voice and visible in his eyes. 

“He doesn’t deserve to know that he can get to me like this. He basically feeds off of people’s misery. And then he thinks he can be around you” Kurt locked eyes with Blaine, shaking his head the tiniest bit. “How is that okay? You are the perfect human being, and he is the complete opposite-“

The Hufflepuff leaned in then, pressing his lips to the Slytherin’s. He pulled Kurt’s face impossibly closer to him with his hands, not caring about getting his face wet from his tear-stained face. 

When they parted, both of their eyes were shining in a combination of emotion.

Kurt sighed, deep and ragged and heartbreaking, now just looking more sad than anything. “We seemed like such a good idea, right? And look at us now.”

“Hey” Blaine hurried to say, holding Kurt tighter, closer.  
Cold sweat crept up on him them, knowing exactly what was going through Kurt's mind. It wasn’t like Blaine himself hadn’t thought about calling everything off just to protect Kurt, to not have him go through the things he had to being with him. His baggage, criticism from other people… Sometimes it just felt like it was not worth it. 

But it was. 

This was the conclusion the Hufflepuff had come to many a time, and his job was to do the same with Kurt now - to help him understand. 

If Kurt had become his lifeboat, which he definitely had pulling him up from some deep waters first helping him with his injury and then his mental health strggles, it was Blaine’s duty to keep the water out of the boat and keep the thing floating. They were not going to drown if it was up to Blaine.

“They can’t touch us, Kurt. Sebastian can’t. No one can. We can’t let them” Blaine whispered, pressing one more kiss right to the corner of Kurt’s mouth. 

He moved one of his hands down from Kurt’s face to grab his hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “We won’t let them.”

Taking a look at their rather short but eventful history Kurt knew that that was going to continue not being easy. Hell, just looking at himself and how miserably pissed he was about Sebastian he could tell that it was going to be tough continuing. 

The thing was that Kurt had never really bothered to care about what people thought of him. As long as he was happy with himself, he didn’t care. Others didn't really matter. Especially not the negatives.

Now though, he was concerned about not only his own happiness but also Blaine’s and anything that could’ve gotten to Blaine now got to him, too. There was no denying that love was hard.  
But even above that, Kurt had realized, love was very, very worth it. 

Kurt took a deep breath and nodded mainly to himself. They could make it work. 

“Yeah. We won’t let them" He finally agreed. "Thank you."  
"I love you a lot, you know" Kurt grinned weakly, wrapping his arms around Blaine's waist.

"I do know" The Hufflepuff nodded. "And I love you a lot, too."

"I love you more though."

Blaine chuckled, smiling at the boy's words softly. "Shut up."


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! If you're here I just want to thank you for coming back to this story. I appreciate it so, so much. 
> 
> I'm not feeling like rambling all that much today, so you can go forth.
> 
> All I wanted to say is that I want to hug each and every one of you who reads what I write. *Very warm and grateful virtual hugs for all*
> 
> Now, enjoy. :)

Later that night after Kurt had escorted Blaine back to the Hufflepuff common rooms with a hug that lasted for several minutes and a kiss they could’ve been fine with never ending, he returned to the Slytherin ones with one thing in mind; sleep. He was completely drained and he knew his functionality as a person was very low bordering nonexistent. 

Still when he saw Santana sitting there on the sofa burritoed in a blanket, looking very distressed, he chose to postpone finding his bed for maybe twenty more minutes. He could take that.

Once Santana noticed Kurt she inhaled sharply and gestured for her best friend to come sit with her. 

"I’m so sorry, Kurt. I shouldn’t have said anything. I mean, of course you are handed 99 problems you don't deserve instantly after I tell you that you have none just to get you to listen to mine," Santana shook her head, so visibly upset with herself and her words earlier that day it was almost too endearing. "Shit..." 

"99 of those problems have to do with Sebastian, 'Tana. You have nothing to do with any of them" Kurt assured sternly, sitting down next to her on the couch. It was a few minutes past midnight and they were definitely supposed to be in bed, but neither of them could really sleep now.

"Yeah, I know that" She nodded, turning to look at her best friend. "But I still feel horrible. And I want to help you. I can punch Sebastian in the face. Screw magic, let me just do that” The Latina was practically pleading for Kurt’s approval to punch their fellow Slytherin, but Kurt wasn’t going to give her that. Of course not. That didn’t stop him from being touched by the gesture though.

"I do really love you, you know that right?" Kurt tilted his head to the right, looking at her with a tiny smile. 

"I do know" Santana sighed, leaning on Kurt's shoulder and pulling the blanket she was under to cover him as well although it was more than warm enough without. "And I love you, too. Really. You're the most tolerable person in this joint."

Kurt furrowed his brows at this. "And Brittany?"

"Oh" Santana exhaled. "She doesn't count. She's not on the chart."

"What? I thought you got your crap together and-" Kurt exclaimed a little too outraged and suddenly a lot too invested in the welfare of his best friend’s relationship.

Santana snorted, putting her hand over his mouth. "Hush, you dumb. Duh I did. She's not on the chart because I love her - in a different way. She has her own chart."

Kurt rolled his eyes with a smile, removing her hand from in front of his mouth. "She gets her own chart and I share one with all of Hogwarts? Not cool" His attempt to sound offended failed massively and he just sounded very amused. He still learned new things every day with Santana it seemed. 

"Oh, please. You're such a hypocrite. I'm sure you have a chart for Blaine and ONLY Blaine, too."

Kurt laughed. "I do not have a chart for Blaine! Or for anyone for that matter. I don't understand what it is about you and these charts."

"Leave me and my charts alone, Hummel."

“Gladly” He chuckled, leaning his head on Santana’s shoulder. “And hey, Satan?”

Santana snorted, wrapping her arms around Kurt. “Yeah?”

“I’m not going to let you physically assault the Cheshire cat.”

“I will find a way.”

-

On Monday morning at 9am Kurt and Blaine were in their shared charms class, sitting at the very back and holding hands under the table - and paying very little attention to the actual lesson. 

What their teacher was endlessly preaching them about was surely something about how important and hard the upcoming N.E.W.Ts next year were going to be. She was also talking about it like it wasn’t something they had heard more than a hundred times just in the last six months. They seriously might as well already have been let out of school two weeks ago because ever sine June maybe one fourth of all teachers still had classes that required an attention span of some sort.

Therefore there were much more important things to be focused on. 

“You’ve actually slept, right?” Blaine whispered to Kurt whilst simultaneously nodding and pretending to follow the happenings of the class unlike Kurt who openly wasn’t.

The Slytherin chuckled very quietly and nodded. “Yeah. I have. I wanted to ask you the same, actually.”

The boy turned to look at him then. “I have, don’t worry” Blaine twirled his wand in his hands and worried his bottom lip between his lips. 

Kurt furrowed his brows at him in concern, reading his body language very differently than his words. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah” He promised, a sudden unsure expression on his face. “I just couldn’t stop wondering if you had been up, not being able to sleep, thinking you’d made a mistake with deciding to keep going and not caring about Sebastian or, really anyone like him.”

Kurt sighed, glancing at the front of the classroom where their professor was scribbling what looked suspiciously like the last notes of the class on the board. He turned to look back at Blaine, lifting their hands on top of the table and squeezing them. “No, absolutely not” He shook his head. “We went through this. I am one hundred and two percent sure about you. I love you, you know that. You’re just being irrational. ”

The Hufflepuff scoffed humorlessly. “Well, that’s what I’m best at.”

The class ended then, sending the students up from their chairs to sprint out of the room struggling with their arms full of papers and books. Blaine stood up too and was going to turn to leave, but Kurt kept his right hand in his and didn’t let go. 

“Hey” Kurt spoke softly. “Wait.” 

He gathered his stuff up and walked out of the classroom with Blaine, turning him fully towards himself when the hallway had cleared. “That is not true.”

“Kurt, it’s fine. I honestly sometimes really feel like it is. That the only talent I have is being a dysfunctional ball of anxiety and irrational thoughts.”

The Slytherin frowned at him, feeling a painful tinge in his chest. He grabbed Blaine’s shoulders and looked him in the eyes, willing to convince him otherwise. “No. That’s nonsense” He said persistently, squeezing the boy’s shoulders when an idea came to him. “Actually, you know what… I’ll prove it to you.”

The Hufflepuff’s eyebrows rose. “Prove it to me?”

Kurt smiled. “Yeah. I’ll deliver you a list of ten things I know for a rock-solid fact you can do better than breed anxious thoughts.” 

Blaine smiled, as well, just plain staring at Kurt as his heart performed some sort of acrobatic routine in his chest. “Well, good luck then."

-

“What’s that?” Santana peered at the piece of paper in front of Kurt from behind his back. She squinted her eyes, seeing ten numbers scribbled on the left side of the paper. Nothing else.

“Nothing that has something to do with you, my dearest” Kurt quipped at her, twirling the quill in between his index and middle finger. 

“Oh!” The girl exclaimed, skillfully ignoring Kurt’s words. “You’re finally creating your own damn chart, aren’t you? Taking it to the next level! I’m so glad to have inspired you-“

The boy scoffed and threw a piece of paper kind of in her direction, barely hitting her on the shoulder. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

Santana sat down next to him, tilting her head at what she firmly believed was going to be a next level chart of people he tolerated.

“Okay” Kurt exhaled, knowing that he would need to tell Santana what she wanted to hear or he’d never get her off of his back. Their friendship was most definitely one of a kind. “Blaine freaked out a bit today and when I told him that he was being irrational he told me he felt like it was the only thing he’s good at. That is obviously not true. So I promised to make him a list of ten things I know he’s better at.”

“Okay, that’s sweet and all but you told him he was being irrational? Not cool.”

“No, Santana. That’s not what it is. He gets really bad anxiety and irrational thoughts are the very thing that leads to all that. So this time I’m not a jerk. It is an actual problem he has.”

“Oh.” Santana said, voice considerably quieter. “I’m sorry about that.”

“Me, too.” Kurt sighed. 

Blaine hadn’t had it easy with his mental health. The things that he’d went through were things that Kurt knew have made people bitter and angry and mean before. But not Blaine. He hadn’t permanently become none of those things. Of course, bitterness and anger are basic human emotions and because Blaine was a human he felt those things too, but not because of struggles he’s faced. Blaine was so kind and so considerate and sometimes it left Kurt completely in awe of him. It was like he was superhuman. 

But he wasn't. In Kurt's eyes, yes - but not really. He was just those things from his very heart. They were traits that were so deep within him they couldn’t be touched or taken away, not by anything or anyone. That was why he was a Hufflepuff. Not because he chose to be kind but because it came to him naturally – it was the only way he knew how to be and how to treat people. 

What broke Kurt’s heart was how Blaine was so gentle with everyone but often failed to treat himself the same way.

“So that’s why I’m helping him. He can be really hard on himself and I don’t like to see that, not when it only brings him down.”

Santana was quiet for a moment and Kurt went back to pondering what exactly he was going to write down, but then she said; “Okay. Wow. You really are in love with the boy. I’ve never seen you care about anyone like this.”

Kurt was stuck between agreeing and ignoring the girl when she chuckled, somehow aware of his inner debate. “You don’t need to say anything. Just know that I’m very happy to know that for sure now. And he’s very lucky, too.”

It was Kurt’s time to have a quiet moment. He turned to look at Santana, a smile slowly breaking on his face. When he cooed at her she knew that she’d made a grand mistake. 

“Where is this coming from, best friend?” He asked, talking to the girl like she was a small, adorable child while she covered her ears with her hands.

“God, Hummel” She grimaced, shaking her head. “I take back what I said.”

The boy snorted at her. “My question to you is what in the hell made you that way?”

“Feelings?” She asked, hands still covering her ears.

Kurt gasped, trying very hard not to laugh. “What? You have those?”

“I hate you.”

-

It wasn’t long until dinner when Kurt finally finished the list and sprinted out of the Slytherin common rooms to go find Blaine. Lucky for him the boy was already heading to dinner and he caught him right outside the Great Hall. 

“Hey, Blaine,” He came up from behind the Hufflepuff and grabbed his arm. 

“Hi” Blaine turned around and smiled at him. “Will you come eat with us?”

“Actually I was wondering if I could just borrow you for a second?” Kurt asked with a soft chuckle.

“Sure” He said without hesitation, walking a little further from the masses into the Hufflepuff corridors right by the kitchen.

“So” The Slytherin pulled the small piece of paper from the pocket of his robes and straightened it out, looking up at Blaine with a smile. “I got this done.”

He handed the paper to Blaine whose eyes scanned the paper thoroughly, his smile growing by every sentence he read further. 

“Quidditch was too much of an obvious one” Kurt said and Blaine looked up from the paper questioningly. “Which is why it’s not on there. I tried to be a little more creative. But you should know that you’re better at that than anyone at this school.”

The Hufflepuff bit his lower lip to contain his smile and focused back on the list titled with much thought; The ten things Blaine Anderson is enviably great at by Kurt Hummel.

Number one and two were ‘Being kind’ and ‘being compassionate’ which were both personality traits that he did pride in having, so he read on – now much more confident that the list wasn’t going to be anything too crazy.

Only he got a little ahead of himself.

3\. Being incredibly brave   
4\. Making professors feel like their knowledge and devotion to teaching are actually being appreciated   
5\. Putting people in their place so gracefully they have no idea they’re being told off

“Kurt” Blaine laughed. “This-“ He couldn’t quite find the right words to say. The whole list to begin with was such an utterly Kurt thing to do, in such a Kurt way and he considered himself just that much luckier there and then. Kurt had certainly proven his point already halfway through his attempt, but before Blaine could tell him that Kurt spoke up. 

“Number ten’s kind of the most important one, so at least read that before feedback.”

Blaine did as suggested, looking back down at the very bottom of the paper to read point number ten. 

10\. Giving a Slytherin a chance to love him despite other slightly more idiotic Slytherins’ idiocy being triggered to the max by it

His heart started beating wildly, matching up to the way Kurt’s had been ever since he’d handed the paper to his boyfriend. He looked back up at Kurt, watching the boy’s eyes impatiently waiting for him to say something, the realization of just how much he loved him filling up his entire mind, heart and soul. 

Instead of unsuccessfully trying to stutter out words this time, Blaine took a step towards Kurt and grabbed the sides of his face with the paper still in his hands, pressing their lips together in a kiss that could’ve just been the most passionate one they’d yet shared. Yet it somehow managed to be very tender and sweet at the very same time.

“So can you accept the list?” Kurt asked with a wide smile once they parted, sounding breathless enough to make Blaine’s toes curl. “Did I make my point?”

The Hufflepuff laughed a breathy laugh and shook his head ever so slightly. “Not all of it. But I guess I will, if you really do think so.”

“I do” Kurt answered instantly. “I really do.”

“And I might not know what it’s like to live with anxiety like that, but what I do know is that I don’t mind, not one percent, being here for you and helping you in any way that I can.” 

Blaine breathed out a quivering breath, biting the inside of his cheek. He really didn’t know what to say or how to be around Kurt sometimes and what blew his mind was that it was all for good things.

“Yeah, point made” Blaine finally said, answering Kurt’s other question. “And for the record, you are much less of an idiot than you think you are.”

“Okay-” The Slytherin tried to sound mock offended, but all of that was gone the second Blaine leaned on his shoulder and hugged him tightly, the rest of his planned sentence coming out as more of a whisper than anything. “Here I was thinking you loved me.”

“I do. So much.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's past midnight, my sentence-forming skills are minimal and I'm falling asleep sitting upright so all I'm gonna say here is thank you so much. This story has over 2000 hits and I'm not sure when that happened but I'm so thankful. And I'm so happy that you - yes, you!!!! are reading what I'm writing.

To say that the last day of classes took Kurt by surprise would’ve been a colossal understatement. He was heading back home to his dad for the almost two months of vacation ahead but he had zero things packed and only came to realize this a day before their holidays were set to start.

It wasn’t like there were many things for him to bring with anyway because most of his stuff was really just books and clothes he didn’t need outside of school, but he was still not prepared. Nor physically or emotionally. Maybe it was a little dramatic, but Kurt had tried to avoid thinking of spending two months away from Blaine for about the last two months. He was not feeling great about having to be apart from the person who’d come to be so important to him for such a long time. It certainly didn’t help that he would be out of the country completely for most of his vacation, with no hopes of seeing Blaine at all. 

He was kind of scared, to be honest. He had no idea what would happen in those two months and by far he had only made up scenarios that he had to admit were unlikely to happen but still felt incredibly unsettling even just as a thought.

When he met with Blaine the night before the morning they would be getting on the train he found that Blaine was on the same page with him. He was a little scared, too.

But unlike Kurt, Blaine was being smart and gradual about it. Kurt would have been very vocal about how happy he was about that if he wasn’t so busy loathing in his worries.

“Kurt” The Hufflepuff started, taking Kurt’s hands and resting his forehead against the boy’s. “You’ll have so much to do you won’t even notice that I’m not there.”

Kurt scoffed at this. “So much to do? As in lay around doing nothing and get dragged into the ocean every other day by Finn? Yeah, sure.”

Blaine laughed. “Yes. And besides, you can count on me sending you letters to the point where you will have no other choice than to send me a howler to get me to stop.”

The Slytherin rolled his eyes at this, chuckling in amusement. 

“You’ll exhaust your owl, you know. Ireland isn’t exactly next door.”

“Ilia? She’s a tough one.”

Kurt raised his eyebrows at this. 

“No, really. Not only does she go on trips of her own for days when she knows she isn’t needed, but once I went to retrieve a letter from her to the Owlery and caught her just landing. There were plenty of barrels that were completely unoccupied but apparently she has a favorite, because she went up to this massive great horned owl and shooed him away to sit where he had been” Blaine explained, amusement evident in his voice. “And she is this petite, seemingly very kind and loving snowy owl.”

Kurt laughed at the story, nodding in agreement. She certainly sounded like she could take a trip or two across country without much trouble.

“Everything’s going to work out, Kurt. For right now I think we just have to set our minds on surviving seven hours in the train in this ridiculous heat.”

“Oh, no” Kurt groaned, throwing his head back. “I totally forgot about that. You’re right.”

Blaine smiled, all but endeared by his boyfriend’s slightly melodramatic ways. “And if I heard you right at all before, you have not packed a thing for tomorrow?”

“Oh yeah, no” He said, realization drawing back on him. “I totally forgot about that too. I definitely need go do that. See you tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah, yeah” The Hufflepuff nodded.

Kurt smiled and leaned in to peck his boyfriend’s lips. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

-

Around fifteen minutes past eleven the next morning Kurt found himself at the platform, getting into the train alongside hundreds of other slightly panicky and very sweaty people. He was about 100% certain he was only standing there with his somewhat packed suitcase because of Santana who hadn’t gone to sleep until she’d supervised that Kurt got everything done. 

He was thankful for her, obviously, but looking back on it he just wanted to laugh at himself. And he kind of still did. Although he’d only skipped most of that night’s sleep, he looked about like he hadn’t slept in a week. He’d styled his hair somehow, but that was about all the effort he’d put into his appearance. 

Another thing he found himself being thankful for was being seated in the same compartment with all Santana, Blaine, Sam and Rachel, although Rachel got up immediately after sitting down, telling them that she needed to go fulfill her prefect duties. 

The rest of them somehow found themselves reminiscing their very first days at Hogwarts in an attempt to kill time. 

“You know, the only thing that I didn’t instantly love were the stairs. They were so unpredictable and scary” Blaine laughed, shaking his head at the memory of his eleven-year-old self being petrified of the staircases of his new school. 

“So, I understand that you were a tiny half-blooded creature when this happened” Kurt started with a teasing smile. “But in a place where you could’ve easily encountered a troll in the bathrooms if a teacher was having a day bad enough, you really found a staircase the scariest?” Kurt asked in mixed disbelief and amusement, his brows raised.

“Shut up” The Hufflepuff bumped shoulders with Kurt, although he found it just as funny. 

“I actually thought they were the coolest thing the moment we were introduced to them” Santana chimed in from the bench opposite them. “There was something so fascinating to me about stairs that could change their mind and whoop somebody’s ass if they felt like it.” She grinned.

“Yeah, so great“ Kurt drawled, shooting Santana back a grin similar to the one that was on her face. 

This was the moment that Sebastian decided to walk past their compartment, clearly on his way to somewhere completely else. However, when he noticed them all sitting there staring at him with quizzical expressions on their faces, he stopped and invited himself to fully open the halfway closed door.

With a collective groan from all four of them the stupid smile reached the boy’s lips. “Could not help but overhear you guys and now I just must know - What is so great?“ 

Santana unsurprisingly beat the others to giving the Slytherin a piece of her mind.

“Actually“ Santana started, turning towards the boy in her seat. “The fact that we don’t have to see your face for two months. And oh – If we’re lucky never after that!“ Santana clapped her hands together with the most fake possible smile stretched on her lips. 

Sebastian continued to look amused. “Yeah. You know, about that, I am coming back to Hogwarts for one more year with you all”. 

He took his time enjoying watching the reactions of his classmates, from Sam rolling his eyes very subtly to Santana and Kurt sharing a look that was a mix of everything between ‘What the actual mother of god’ and ‘how did we not know this?’.

“And why in the hell is that, if I may ask?“ Asked Kurt, as calm and collected as humanly possible considering the circumstances.

“Oh, seeing as I was away for a year in France three years back, I have to complete that missing year.”

“But don’t you worry Hummel, I'll still be Quidditch captain like I've always been, and you can keep on dreaming about being one." 

If only looks could make a person disappear, thought Kurt, maybe he actually would’ve wanted to look at him then. But because him snarling at Sebastian was going to do no good he simply didn’t bother.

“Look, I honestly do not care all that much. Not about you, anyway. I just want to get to my blissful summer of no idiots and no magic.” She said, crossing her arms against her chest tightly. “So, have a great one.”

Before Sebastian could do so much as open his mouth to even try and say something, Santana continued. “Except you know what – Don’t. You don’t really deserve to. I hope that you get a limb bitten off by an acromantula. That’s what you deserve. The poor spider doesn’t, though. You must taste disgustingly bitter.”

The boy looked at her with his eyes wide for a moment before he just shrugged and turned to look at Blaine who was seated opposite them in the compartment.

“I can’t wait to see you again next year. You’re actually probably the only one I can say that about.” Sebastian smirked. 

Blaine could actually hear Kurt gritting his teeth together next to him then. He looked up at the ceiling briefly before sighing. He wasn’t sure when this had happened and how it was him that was being targeted – what exactly did Sebastian want from him, but he wasn’t going to take any of it. Not anymore, at least. 

“I’m not afraid of you or anything, you know” Blaine started, making sure to look into Sebastian’s eyes even if he would rather have not. He was doing this now because he could – telling to one person attempting to make people miserable what he once couldn’t to another. “You’re extremely repulsive and have no general idea of how to act with people, but I’m not afraid of you.”

“That’s what you want, right? You can’t make people love you, but you can make people fear you. I have to say that that’s really smart, but it’s not working for me.” The Hufflepuff said, voice incredibly stern in a way even Sam hadn’t heard many times. The way his heart was beating rapidly against his rib cage didn’t show through in any way.

“I’m not some delicate flower that can’t defend itself, either. I’m not made purely of kindness and fairy dust. And I’m telling you now, I’m not interested in you in the slightest. You think that your house and the history of it allows you to treat people however way you want and it is actually alright but it’s not. That’s the real problem with you. I just want to make it very clear that I don’t want you near me or the people I care about here, and this is the last time I’m going to say this to you.”

The sight of seeing Sebastian Smythe biting into the inside of his cheek, searching for words, was one that Blaine was more than joyous to witness.  
“Oh, wow” The Slytherin started, raising his eyebrows. “Didn’t think that you had that in you. You can be mean too, Anderson.”

Blaine simply shook his head. “No, I actually just treat other people the way I know they deserve to be treated. Usually it’s with good will and grace, but you have proven your point - you really don’t deserve to be treated that way.”

Sebastian stood there for a moment, visibly a little stunned with his mouth ever so slightly agape until Santana spoke again. 

“You can go, you know. See you in September.”

“Yeah” Sam said, smiling almost victoriously. “Have a wonderful summer!”

After Sebastian had left Sam, Santana and Kurt all burst out laughing, Kurt leaning in and grabbing Blaine’s head with both his hands to kiss his cheek. 

“Oh my god, I love you so much!” He exclaimed with a laugh.

“Dude, that was epic!” Sam said, pride pretty much pouring out of his ears.

“You are officially my favorite damn hobbit ever” Santana declared, lifting her hands up above her head mimicking surrendering. 

Blaine laughed too, grabbing Kurt’s hand in his and resting them on top of his thigh. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Yes, it is” Santana said back instantly. “I think that was a first for our little Sebastian.”

Rachel came back from her prefect duties then with a wide grin plastered on her face. “Sebastian Smythe walked past me on my way here and the way he looked was about the same as that one time he tried to curse that one poor Ravenclaw to win a quidditch match but ended up losing. That was your doing, I suppose?”

“Told you!” Santana practically screamed, pointing a sharp manicured red nail so close to Blaine’s face he had to lean back slightly. 

“Get used to that” Kurt whispered him, smiling in sheer amusement.

“It was all this guy” Sam confirmed, also pointing at his fellow housemate and smiling at Rachel proudly. 

“Blaine!” The Gryffindor exclaimed joyously, seating herself back next to Blaine.

“I just did what I had to” He found himself blushing, being incredibly grateful for Rachel when she just nodded and changed the topic to what they were going to be doing in the summer. 

Next to Blaine Kurt was starting to really feel the consequences of his mostly sleepless night. Although he tried to listen and engage in conversation, he just couldn’t fight his eyes closing and he soon found himself drifting to sleep. 

Blaine looked down at him and smiled fondly, gently pulling the boy against him so that his head was resting on his shoulder. He circled his arms around the Slytherin and also closed his eyes. There were four more hours to be spent sitting in this train that was far too hot to even really function and there was really nothing else to do. 

It was Rachel that almost woke the two up only minutes after they’d both fallen asleep with a very not subtle squeal. 

It was also her to really wake them up after exactly four hours. 

“Hey” She took Blaine’s non-occupied shoulder and shook it gently, stirring the boy awake. “We need to get off the train in fifteen, so it would be good if you were awake” She smiled a little. 

“Yeah, right” Blaine mumbled groggily. “Thanks.”

He turned to look out of the compartment window just to see that it had been covered with the burgundy colored curtain, leaving just the smallest crack for the sun to come in through. His assumption was that it was the doing of one of Santana, Sam and Rachel and he was very grateful for it, because it was just that less excruciatingly warm this way. 

None of them were in there at that moment, though – and he wondered why until he remembered that they were going to be in London soon and they were probably out there saying goodbyes and see you laters to their actual housemates, so he made the mental note to thank them for it eventually. 

Kurt, however, was still there with him, right where he’d been hours ago – sleeping soundly against his shoulder. His hair was mostly broken out of the exceptionally perfect way he’d coiffed it earlier that day, sticking out in a dozen directions and he was kind of sleeping in a position that Blaine knew his neck wasn’t going to be happy about. Still he thought his boyfriend, right there and then - peaceful and at ease, was the single most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. 

“Hey” Blaine whispered, having the heart to wake the boy up just purely because of how rubbish of a pillow his shoulder actually was. “Kurt.”

The Slytherin slowly lifted his head up and sat up straighter, mumbling something incoherent in the progress. 

“What is it?” He asked with a yawn.

Blaine chuckled softly at the grogginess of his boyfriend, pressing a light kiss to his temple. 

“Just that we need to get going in a few and you can’t really do that if you’re sleeping and drooling on my shirt” He grinned, watching the other boy go from barely woken up to completely, perfectly awake. 

“Blaine Anderson” He exclaimed, just the thought of it making his eyes widen with horror. “I do not drool.” 

“No” The Hufflepuff agreed. “But you are awake now.”

Kurt rubbed a hand over his face and slapped the shoulder of Blaine’s he’d been sleeping on with the tiniest smile. 

The two made sure that the compartment of theirs looked somewhat tidy and opened back the curtain before leaving, They also agreed to go and wish their wells to a few people from their own houses and meet at the station after, so that’s what they did. 

After seeing the people he was the closest to Blaine found himself being embraced by at least a dozen more of his fellow Hufflepuffs and even Gryffindors that he didn’t know all that well, telling him they couldn’t wait to see him again in the fall. But he didn’t really mind the hugs. At all. 

The next thing he knew was people streaming out of the train and walking and running all over the platform, making it a real task to find his friends among them. 

“Hey, Blaine” Rachel called to him where she was standing with everyone including Kurt. “Are we going?”

Kurt shot her a quizzical look, to which she simply answered with a smile. “We live in the same neighborhood.”

“Yeah, yeah” Blaine said when he finally managed to walk  
up to them without bumping face first into anyone. “In just a moment.”

He left his suitcase standing right there and took the few steps towards Kurt, who was already smiling at him kind of crookedly. 

“I know that this is stupid to say, but I don’t want to do this.”

Blaine’s eyes widened. “Oh, well- Okay. We can just go-“

Kurt rolled his eyes at the boy and shook his head, opening his arms. “You dumb, that is not what I meant.”

The Hufflepuff chuckled airily, relief rolling over him. “Right.”

As Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine’s waist, Blaine threw his around Kurt’s shoulders and practically glued himself as close to him as he could.

“What I don’t want to do is say goodbye to you” Kurt clarified, face buried in the crook of Blaine’s neck and voice barely above a whisper. 

“Then don’t” Blaine said simply. This didn’t need to be a big, emotional thing. This wasn’t. It was just that the being apart part was always scary and even more so because it was new and the first time they’d really been away from each other. Two months in different countries would be fine. They would be fine. This was what they had both been going over in their heads for days. 

They stayed there like that until pretty much the whole platform had been cleared with the exception of very few friend groups like theirs scattered around. 

“Okay” Santana was the first to speak, being urged by Rachel to do so. “We really needs to get going. I have dinner with my mom to get to and if I’m late I can tell you we won’t be meeting ever again.”

Kurt detached himself from Blaine enough to look him in the eyes. “I wasn’t planning to, honestly” Kurt finally said to him and let out a quiet laugh, clasping his own hands together tighter behind Blaine’s back. “I’m never saying goodbye to you.” 

“I won’t let you.”

The Hufflepuff bit his lower lip and glanced down at his feet. He was so painfully aware that there were people around and he’d previously thought that that didn’t worry him anymore. But here he was, suddenly feeling very uneasy, too close and still not close enough to Kurt at the very same time. Why did it have to be so complicated? Why in the world did he care so much?

Blaine was not far away from getting tangled up in his thoughts completely when he felt Kurt’s hands on both sides of his head and then a pair of very soft, familiar lips on his, erasing every single thought from inside of his head.

“I’ll write you as soon as I can, okay?” Kurt asked as soon as they parted.

“Yeah” Blaine nodded. “Of course. Please do.”

“I will” He smiled, letting go of Blaine entirely. “See you soon.”

Blaine could only nod before Rachel grabbed his hand and they both disappeared into the brick pillar of the platform. 

“You’ll be fine, alright” Santana told Kurt as they did the same, heading towards the London underground. “Me and Brittany are in the same situation. This is the one time you have to believe that the less dramatic you are the better.”

Kurt sighed but nodded, knowing that Santana was right. He could choose to make a much bigger deal of this than it was, but he was going to try not to. 

“I’ll write you too, you know, whether you want me to or not.”

“Just know that if you only have access to one piece of paper at some point and you need to choose between me and the badger, you better send him that piece of paper. I know that you’re thinking of me without you reminding me” The girl grinned at him.

Kurt laughed. “Yeah, don’t worry.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh, this took me a while, but I was so busy getting back to school that I barely had time to write. I almost got lost on the way to platform nine and three quarters, can you believe that? *wide grin* (Please let me know which house you belong to. I insist that we meet up one day. I'm a Hufflepuff. See ya around.)
> 
> But for reals, I was home sick for a week and I'm only getting back on my feet now and although you could think that I had loads of time to write while being miserable and having a cold, I have actually had a very hard time not falling asleep every few hours so that was a bit of a challenge. But as I said, I'm slowly coming back. 
> 
> The most important thing I have to say is that yall - each and every person reading this, I love you so much. Truly. It's all of you who give me the motivation if I ever feel like I just can't write, so I owe you far more than you could imagine. Thank you. I don't wanna jinx it but I'm pretty excited for this new year for these guys myself. :)
> 
> Now, I hope you enjoy. x

"Hey, buddy!" Kurt could hear his dad calling him from inside. "Come here real quick, will you?"

Kurt groaned, shaking his head against the lounge chair in the humble backyard of their vacation house. "Do I really have to, dad? It's so hot I feel like if I move I’ll melt."

"Any way you want it, but Astoria just came back and she's got quite the stack of envelopes with her, most of them with your name on them!"

Kurt got up immediately and quietly damned Blaine to himself for making him want to get up and most definitely risk actually melting into a puddle of overheated, disgusting goo on the ground. 

It was bad out, the sun beaming down from the sky and attempting fry everything under it, but it was ten times worse inside with zero air conditioning. 

So Kurt did the most sensible thing he could think of. He sprinted inside through the backdoor and grabbed the mail from on top of the kitchen table, patted the head of his beloved barn owl gently and jogged right back outside. 

Burt chuckled at him once he was already back out of the house. 

"You're something else, kid" He told him, peeking out of the glass door opening to the backyard. 

"I'm melting, dad. That's what I am."

Clearly Astoria wasn't all that fond of the heatwave either because a moment later the owl flew out of the back door and sat on the armrest of the chair Kurt was seated on, letting out a barely audible hooting sound. 

"You like the shadow too, huh?" Kurt turned to look at his long-term pet with a small smile, reaching his hand out to smooth out the varying brown and white feathers on her back. 

"Dude, I don't think I'll ever get used to that" Finn said from where he was getting out of the pool, eyes on the bird sitting next to his step-brother. 

Kurt scoffed, furrowing his brows at him slightly. "Get used to what?"

"The owl" He said, wrapping a towel around his broad shoulders. "I never had one. I got a toad for my twelfth birthday and I still have him. He's not really sociable though, so I guess that's what I find so weird about-" Finn made a face, squinting at Astoria. "-Her."

The owl tilted her head to the side, looking toward Finn. 

The Slytherin couldn't help but laugh at this. "Oh come on. You’ve worked with dragons for the last year! And she's so nice." 

"I know, but I don’t understand her I guess. I've lived with her a shorter time than you, yeah - I get it, but she doesn't seem to be getting used to me any more than I am to her."

“You can always change that” Kurt simply said, smiling at his stepbrother a little. 

The next fifteen minutes he spent watching over Finn playing with the owl, dangling this fur ball toy that looked a little too much like a pygmy puff in the air in front of her while she tilted her head in all sorts of directions and paddled along the chair trying to catch it in her beak. 

“She is pretty adorable” Finn admitted finally after he’d thrown the toy onto the lawn, sending Astoria flying after to retrieve it. 

“Maybe you should get one of your own” The far shorter boy suggested, finally grabbing the first one from the stack of letters in his lap and starting to open it. “I know dragons are maybe the cooler flying creatures of this world but owls are still pretty amazing, as you see. We’ll go shopping next week anyways” He waved the halfway opened letter with the Hogwarts stamp on it in the air for Finn to see. “You are coming back, right?”

“Oh, yeah. I am” He said, startling a little upon Astoria landing on his forearm but smiling at her when she dropped the toy from her beak and into his hand.

Finn had spent the last full year in Europe studying Care of Magical Creatures and specifying in dragons and their origins, thus not technically going to Hogwarts for an entire year. Still, unlike Sebastian’s, his year off had been with full credits and there was no need for him to spend an extra year at the school making up for his absence. Now he was just going to come and do his final year with Kurt and Rachel and everyone as he was supposed to, like he’d done the last five years up to now. The fact that they would get to do that – starting and finishing school together was just so great.

“And yeah, maybe – about the owl, I mean. This one owl that I have always used for sending letters home from back at the Owlery, I named him Harold – Taken that he’s still there, I’m not sure what he would think, dude. We’d grown pretty fond of each other.”

Kurt simply grinned at him, shaking his head a little. It was very easy to get along with Finn now. It had admittedly been a little challenging at first – especially the time he had the biggest crush on him (also known as the time that they don’t talk about), but now years after they’d grown to be like actual brothers and it was great. Kurt couldn’t help but always feel super safe when he went anywhere with Finn because he was so tall and well-built, and Finn had someone to help him with his tendency to not know what in the world to wear when he was out of his robes. It worked well for both of them.

“I think that you need to consult to both Carole and my dad first, though. To check if they desire having two owls flying around the house on holidays.”

“I think you’re thinking right. I need to do that.”

Finn walked back inside calling for Carole, extending his hand out to allow Astoria to fly off onto the lower branches of the singular oak tree in the backyard.  
Kurt smiled to himself, reading through the list of supplies he was required to get for his seventh year ahead. He slipped the two papers back inside the envelope and set it down on the table next to him, leaving that for him to worry about later. 

He then proceeded to open all the rest of the letters, most of them from Blaine. His smile only grew as he read on about the boy’s continuing summer adventures and how he just felt like he needed to send more than one letter at a time – hence why he was holding five letters of Blaine’s in his hands. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen Blaine’s owl at least once every week since their holidays began and vice versa, but Blaine said in his fourth letter that he wanted to send a letter especially for Astoria for all the long distances she’d had to conquer delivering Kurt’s letters to him. 

And sure enough the fifth letter was assigned to Astoria, holding inside a tiny note that Blaine had written his well wishes on for her, as well as one of those tiny mouse-shaped toys meant for cats. 

Kurt couldn’t help laughing out loud at that particular letter. He looked up to see the owl staring at him down from the tree, somehow knowing that he was keeping something from her.

“You want this right now?” He picked the mouse toy up and the owl instantly flew down to catch it in her beak. 

Kurt sighed wistfully. 

Nine more days.

-

“Blaine, honey!”

“Yeah?”

His mom appeared in the porch doorway, leaning on the frame with a suspiciously giddy smile on her face.

“I finally got one of these odd things” She lifted up her hand and waved the iPhone in it with a wide, proud grin. “And I even learned to use it. It wasn’t that hard!”

Blaine’s eyes widened, his mouth curling into a smile very much mirroring his mother’s. “You did?” He asked, excitement evident in his voice, which made Pam just all the more happy.

“Yeah. And guess what?” She sat down on the chair next to the one her son was seated in, turning towards him.

The boy lifted his eyebrows quizzically, holding onto the armrest of the chair.

“I just got off the phone with someone. I found their number on the internet after a moment of searching, which I’m also super proud of” She announced, brushing a brunette lock of hair behind her ear. “Guess who it was?”

“Mom” Blaine started, more amused than anything. “How do you even know about the internet?”

“Come on Blainey” She reached out to ruffle Blaine’s product free hair. “It’s not like I’m living in ancient time! Just guess who it was.”

The boy shook his head, his curls bouncing on his forehead. “I have no idea” He said, still smiling. “Just tell me.”

“Burt Hummel.”

Blaine gaped at his mother, heartbeat quickening. Did she really…? “What?”

“Apparently he has a business and owns a phone!”

“Yeah” Blaine just nodded. “Yeah, he does.” 

“Well, honey, he promised he would get you on the phone with Kurt first thing tomorrow when they get back home from their family vacation” Pam declared with a smile that reached all the way to her eyes, reaching out to squeeze his son’s shoulder, but Blaine surged forward to wrap his arms tightly around his mother instead. 

“Oh my god! That’s amazing. Thank you so much.”

-

“Kurt” Blaine breathed out, a smile curling on his lips instantly after the call connected.

“Blaine” Kurt chuckled softly from the other end of the line, leaning on the windowsill in his room.

“How are you?” Blaine asked, shaking his head, still kind of trying to process that this was actually happening. It had been so long since he’d heard Kurt’s voice and he’d missed it so, so much – Not to mention that the phone was kind of its own thing to get used to. 

“I’m good. Unpacking is not that fun and knowing magic doesn’t really help when you can’t use it outside school” Kurt said, not sounding the least bit annoyed.

“It is so good to hear your voice again” Blaine told him, brushing a stray dark curl away from his face. 

Kurt ducked his head. “Maybe I should’ve sent you that howler after all” He joked, holding the phone pressed in between his shoulder and ear to stuff the stack of books in his hand back into his bookcase. 

The Hufflepuff laughed. “Yeah, maybe.”

“So, uh” Kurt started, falling back on his bed. “A week, huh?”

Blaine was silent for a moment. “Yeah” He nodded mainly to himself. “But hey, we’ve gone seven without any problems. I think we’ll be good.”

“Yeah, no, it’s not that. I know we can do that, I just really, really miss you” He said softly, clutching a pillow against his chest. Thinking a year or two back, Kurt would’ve never been able to expect himself being able to be this open and vulnerable with someone – anyone. It felt as odd as it did completely right.

Blaine bit the inside of his cheek, inhaling sharply. “I know” He whispered. 

“We could go back to school shopping together, though. Then we would only have to wait a couple of days.”

“That sounds like the best thing I’ve heard in a while” The Hufflepuff told him, his smile audible. That was the best thing that Kurt had heard in a while, honestly.  
“I’ll just check with my-“

Blaine turned around to go look for his mother but he didn’t need to search much, having her sitting right there right behind him.

“Don’t even bother asking” She said, and Blaine’s heart almost dropping before she continued with a smile on her face; “Of course you can go, what are you thinking?”

Kurt smiled despite himself. “I heard that. No need for repetition. So is midday on Tuesday good?”

“Yeah. I can’t wait.”

“Me neither.”

-

Once Tuesday came neither Kurt or Blaine barely managed to wait for their assigned time to meet. This was why they ended up meeting two hours earlier than initially planned. 

Burt had struggled with the wall for a while and Kurt had rolled his eyes, groaning in utter frustration that it was just a diagonal line he had to draw on a bunch of bricks, damn it and he’d done it without problems dozens of times before but of course this time had to be the one he struggled. 

Once this problem was out of the way, the only one remaining was actually finding who they were supposed to be meeting. 

Diagon Alley was expectedly very very crowded, witches and wizards of varying ages strolling down the street along them, some taking their time but some sprinting forward and dodging others in their way like their life depended on how fast they got to the end of their shopping lists. Some were carrying owls in cages and some trying to keep their rats from running away from them, but everyone seemed to be on a quest and they all seemed pretty determined to accomplish theirs. There were wizards there who not only wanted but needed to be first in line to get this or that and although Kurt was also supposed to belong to this group of wizards, buying anything became secondary the second he saw Blaine standing outside Ollivanders. 

Or, well – he practically ran straight into him because he did not see him at first. 

Suddenly it was very easy for Burt to forgive his son for his slightly unkind words from earlier upon seeing him and Blaine finally together, smiling brighter than he’d ever seen him smile before. Seeing just what Kurt had talked his ear off about unfolding in front of him and everything making sense made him wonder if that’s what Kurt felt like when he was with Blaine but the answer was very obviously yes. It was really no wonder why he got frustrated having to wait extra ten seconds to meet him. 

“Oh, finally!” The Slytherin exclaimed, his arms instantly finding their place around Blaine as he turned around all bright smiles and sparkling eyes. 

“Hi!” Blaine threw his arms around Kurt and pulled him closer to his chest, forgetting just about the entire rest of the world for the moment, allowing himself to be overwhelmed by the feeling of Kurt back where he belonged – and on the contrary the feeling of being back where he belonged himself, too. “I was pretty sure I wouldn’t find you out here.”

When they dared to part after being convinced by both Pam and Burt that they wouldn’t (and couldn’t) be dragged away from each other the second they did like they seemed to be sure they would, they started their search for their required school supplies. 

They got their books and updated quills and ink refills and were both nothing but smiles and heart eyes all the while getting them, and the best part was that nobody batted an eye, nobody cared.

Around one Finn appeared into the tiny little café Pam had insisted they go pay a visit to and so they found themselves at the pet store getting an owl for Finn.  
You could think that getting a pet like that would be easy, but oh no. Finn spent a good hour browsing the tiny shop for the ‘perfect owl’ and Burt almost told him that there was no such thing as a pet dragon when he finally made his mind once one of the birds attempted to bite a piece of his ear off. The snowy owl called Elmo that attempted said ear-biting now happily hooted inside of the cage Finn carried it out of the shop in. 

It was nearing three in the afternoon when they’d done just about everything one could do on Diagon Alley and Burt announced that they should have to get going so that he could get back to work. Of course both Kurt and Blaine knew that they needed to leave too, needed to get their things packed and go back to spending the last few days of their holidays with their family etcetera, but it was very very challenging to carry out. 

“Okay” Kurt turned to face Blaine then, grabbing both of his hands and looking him in the eyes. 

“Yeah?” Blaine countered, squeezing the boy’s hands gently.

“We’ll see each other soon enough again, and then we’ll see each other all the time – possibly so much that we’ll get totally sick of each other-“

“You can speak for yourself” The Hufflepuff smiled in amusement.

Kurt shook his head with a smile of his own. “My point is that I have far too much to do considering I have hardly two days until I have to leave home for another three and a half months, and I’m pretty sure you are no different no matter how organized you can be” He grinned and got a chuckle out of Blaine as he’d wished. “We won’t even notice it until we’re together again, I promise.” 

And they didn’t, not really. Two days went by like they were nothing and on September first they met at Kings Cross with all of their things and spent a good while hugging not only each other but all of their friends before boarding the Hogwarts Express with all their fellow students. They sat in the same compartment with Rachel, Sam, Finn and Santana like they’d done before parting two months earlier, sharing every story about their vacation that they could think of. 

Somehow both Blaine and Kurt stayed awake this time, Blaine sitting practically in Kurt’s lap by the window. It was a compromise they had to make for wanting to fit six people in the same compartment, but they didn’t really mind. Not at all. 

All in all the train ride wasn’t bad at all, the weather typical for the time of year it was – not really warm or cold, a few raindrops falling from the greyish sky every now and then. This only meant that they didn’t need to deal with it being unbearably hot like in June. 

Everything went perfectly swimmingly up until they got off the train seven hours later, Kurt and Santana parting from the rest of the group with promises of meeting up soon and saw their favorite fellow Slytherin on the platform.

“We don’t need to deal with this” Santana told Kurt immediately, completely serious and endearingly nothing but the welfare of his best friend in mind. 

“I know” He said quietly, smiling at her in response. “I just want to be polite this one time.”

Sebastian walked past the two of them then and Kurt was quick to catch his attention.

“Oh, hi, Smythe! How was your summer? Great or simply outstanding?” Kurt asked him in a far too chipper of a tone for it to sound normal for anyone.

He was almost ecstatic to find that the Slytherin didn’t even stop to talk to him, just kept on walking and grumbled “Go to hell, Hummel” as he went.

“Wow. Cute” He exclaimed after him sarcastically. “Where exactly do you think I came from?”

Santana started laughing hysterically next to him, clutching onto his shoulder as she practically heaved for air, willing for some to return to her lungs. 

“I missed you a lot, you know.”

The boy chuckled. “Yeah, I missed you too.”

“This year will be amazing, I’m telling you.”

Kurt just so happened to look towards the flock of slightly confused looking first year students that Blaine seemed to be giving compassionate orders to despite what seemed to be both the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw prefects’ presence, a smile on his face and his trunk as well as Ilia’s cage in his hands. The Slytherin watched him nod and squeeze the shoulder of the closest little girl standing to him, sending them on their way towards the castle with the prefects that looked equal parts irritated and thankful for Blaine’s intruding. 

Blaine looked up then, finding Kurt’s eyes in the crowd almost instantly. His already there smile just brightened and he lifted up his hand in a small wave. 

“I know” Kurt waved back at him, smiling as he bit into his lower lip. “I know it will be.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Again, it's been a while and now I'm editing this at such an hour that I am falling asleep, so I'll correct all errors that are left later and also keep this note short and sweet;
> 
> Thank you for coming back to this, for reading and for all the love - I hope you enjoy x

“Are you seriously trying to give me the same crap again, Rachel? Come on, no, I’m not buying it” Santana shook her head at the Gryffindor and Kurt laughed quietly, leaning on the dark-haired girl’s shoulder. 

Blaine shook his head at the conversation that had been going on for the past fifteen minutes, willing himself not to take part. Santana, Brittany and Kurt had been more or less harassing Rachel and Finn, interrogating them about their on and off long distance relationship that had taken place for the last year. With the exception of shooting Kurt a few disapproving looks between their more inappropriate questionings, he wanted nothing to do with it. Rachel wanted to talk about herself anyway, so although she wouldn’t admit it the interrogation taking place didn’t bother her in the slightest. Sam, on the other hand, didn’t quite feel the same.

He tried to focus on listening to Blaine explain the Herbology basics from last year to him, but after a while he just couldn’t deal with the background noise anymore.

“Hey guys, do you mind?” He turned towards the lot sitting in a circle on the ground, all signs of patience long gone. “If your babbling keeps me from learning what I need to about these bloody Snargaluffs, I promise I’ll go all out Snargaluff on you.” 

The five stared at Sam for a moment in silence before collectively nodding, Santana ever so gracefully sticking out her tongue at the boy before Rachel continued their discussion in a whisper; “Honestly Santana, I don’t think that my affairs have anything to do with-“

Sam sighed and accepted that that was what he had to work with. 

“No problem, man. You can do this. Just listen” Blaine encouraged him with a small smile and pulled out some more of his notes from Herbology last year. 

The originally intended study group worked on the Hufflepuffs’ part for about twenty minutes from then on. Once the trio finally decided to stop harassing the two, Rachel and Finn took out their potions books and Santana and Brittany continued procrastinating, wrapped in each other’s arms on the floor. Kurt got up and walked to Blaine, seating himself wordlessly on his lap and distracting him from the task at hand tremendously. 

“Kuuuuurt, what are you doing?” 

“Well, I kind of need your help too, If you wouldn’t mind.” 

“Oh, no” Blaine told him, smiling up at him playfully. “Just because you practically passed my Transfiguration class for me once doesn’t mean that I will start doing your homework for you.”

Little did he know that about four weeks later he had absolutely no time to do anything but return assignment after assignment to a professor after another and practice some advanced level spells that were totally unheard of, completely consuming not only all of his possible time to sleep but also the time he could spend with his friends, not to mention Kurt. 

He had zero energy, zero time and thus, zero social life and school had somehow managed to do that to him in a month. 

School itself had never really been a problem for Blaine. He had always enjoyed it and especially when he was smaller, because every new thing he learned was so utterly mind blowing. Every day he’d come home from school and gush endlessly to his mother about some history of literature facts that were perhaps pointless in the big picture but so important to little Blaine.

Being half-blooded he grew up being well aware of both the Muggle and the Wizarding world and the quirks and specialties of both, but despite the newspapers with moving, living pictures lying around his house, he always found the most mundane things around him the most interesting.  
That never really changed until he came to Hogwarts and got to know how truly magical the Wizarding world was compared to what his previous knowledge of it had been and he just wanted to discover all of it in about one night. 

Still to this day the problem with school for Blaine was certainly much less the learning and going to class part – as he still found it fairly enjoyable most of the time, and much, much more the way that it was capable of making him feel. While years ago it had only caused him extreme excitement, it now gave him his share of anxiety and stress unlike anything else. 

Living with anxiety could get hard enough as it was, but when school was added to the mix, that’s how Blaine had reached some of his deepest lows regarding his mental health. It was with no warning whatsoever that he’d so many times gone from being mostly okay to finding himself having mental breakdowns more often than not that at some point he’d just learned to accept that that’s how his academic career was going to be like. 

There had been a point the previous year that he’d thought that maybe, just perhaps, the way he dealt with all of it would change considering how happy he was being with Kurt and everything, but now he just wanted to scold himself for ever even letting himself think so. Kurt had completely changed his life for the better, but something like this that was rooted so deep within him wasn’t to be removed by any grand gesture of love like in Disney movies. 

So now with just about five weeks into his last year at Hogwarts Blaine was already on the very edge of burning out completely. Luckily he was also living in the same space with his best friend of five years, so there was no way for him not to see that. And of course Sam did and the second he did he knew he had to do something about it. 

One day he stormed through the boys' dormitory door like some force of nature with his hands on his hips and a decisive yet worried look on his face. 

“Dude, you’ve been like this for like three weeks!”

The boy's voice startled Blaine out of his thoughts, causing him to drop his quill and splatter a generous amount ink on the parchment in front of him. He sighed, looking up at his best friend all the while trying to wipe the stain off. 

“Like what, Sam?” He snapped at him without the intention to, crossing his arms against his chest in an automatic defensive gesture. 

Of course he knew what Sam was talking about. And yes it was wildly unsettling how the amount of time he was capable of spending with his friends as well as his boyfriend was practically nonexistent in the moment. It was like with more time that passed, the more assignments were thrust upon him and the more he would be pushed away from the people that had come to be the ones that mattered the most to him in the world. Blaine couldn’t even remember the last time he’d seen Brittany or Santana and when he’d tried to make plans to spend an entire day with Rachel just last week, they had been assigned so much research work for their potions class they just couldn’t go through with it. They’d settled on a rain check, but Blaine wasn’t sure if that was ever going to happen. At least not in another two months if his calendar was anything to go by.  
But he had everything totally under control. He was fine. He would be fine. 

Sam dropped down heavily at the end of Blaine’s bed, focusing his visibly concerned eyes on him. “You know like what. And I’m ending it now. All this crap is not as important as you make it out to be.” 

Blaine stopped trying to do damage control on the parchment that he’d ruined. He bit his lower lip and looked up at Sam. “What do you mean?”

“You just, dude- you need to not be this stressed out all the time. I know all this means a lot to you but you really don’t need to work so hard. This is not even hard, this is crazy and it’s not even the N.E.W.Ts yet! Not eating, not sleeping…” 

“I’m not stressed out, Sam” He cut the boy off quickly. ”I’m fine" He said, voice barely above a whisper.

The blond shook his head sternly. “No, you’re not. I know it’s the hardest thing for you to do – to let go, to relax, and I understand! But you need to try.”

“Sam, I have all this stuff-“

It was Sam’s turn to sigh. “When’s the last time you saw Rachel?”

Blaine’s eyes darted around the room as he tried to come up with an answer to Sam’s question that didn’t sound as horrible as the truth was - and failing horribly. “I- uh, last week.”

“Yeah. What about Kurt? When’s the last time you spent more than five minutes talking about something other than some school related stuff with your boyfriend?”

“I-“ Blaine ducked his head. He didn’t even want to think about it. The sudden wave of panic that made him have to find his breath before opening his mouth again was not the only indication that he had been neglecting not only important people in his life but also at the same time his very own well-being. 

Sam wasn’t wrong - he was often eating at the weirdest times and sometimes he completely forgot lunch even existed, but it wasn't like he was going to give up that easily. He could take care of himself. 

“It has definitely been a while, but I’ve just been really busy” He tried, but Sam was having absolutely none of it. 

“You know what man, that’s it” The blond got up and carefully closed the book and stacked the parchments in front of Blaine as he just stared helplessly. “I keep saying this – I can be kinda stupid, but I’m not blind. I’m your best friend and you haven’t been taking care of yourself the way that you should” He set the books on his own bed and pointed a finger at Blaine. “Fact!” 

Or maybe he couldn’t. 

“So what are you doing?” Blaine asked tiredly although he had a very good idea about his plan. 

“I’m clearing your schedule for tomorrow. No buts, no nothing. You don’t have class and now you have none of that nonsense that is driving you out of your mind.”

Blaine glanced at his workload now resting on top of Sam’s mess of an unmade bed and then back at his best friend. 

“I care about you and I know how hard you take this stuff, whether there’s need to do so or not. I don’t want you to burn out before you’ve even made a start for your badass career.”

This got the smallest smile out of Blaine. “Thanks” Was all he found himself saying through his mixed anxieties and gratitude, but Sam didn’t need any more than that. 

“Of course. I love you man. I want you to be okay… And Kurt. We share Herbology somehow, so he’s been bugging me endlessly about talking to you. Just promise me that you will try not to be so hard on yourself, okay?” Sam reached over to squeeze Blaine’s shoulder. “Now, I’m going to make sure that you sleep before I even think about it myself” The boy shot him a look and switched off his bedside lamp, jumping on his own bed with a thump. Moments later Blaine could hear him mutter a quiet Lumos, the tip of his wand lighting up and illuminating the room with a soft white glow. 

With that Blaine got under his duvet, the feeling of the feather-soft pillow under his heavy head so soothing. Being as exhausted as he was it didn’t take him long to drift off, but before he did his thoughts wandered back to Sam’s words and especially the ones about Kurt, and for the first time in the longest time he fell asleep with a smile softly tugging at his lips, letting him know that maybe he would be okay. 

-

When Blaine woke up on Saturday morning and the time seemed to be nearing ten his first instinct was to start frantically looking for his books, cold sweat creeping up the back of his neck – before he remembered what had just happened last night. 

He allowed himself to take a deep breath in, squeezing his eyes shut momentarily before giving himself a small pep talk. “You can do this, Blaine. You need the free time. You need to relax” He muttered to himself as he and changed into his uniform and made it his first task for the day to find and talk with Rachel. 

The Hufflepuff wasn’t sure why he was so surprised to find that the Gryffindor was so much ahead of him, already leaning on the wall just outside the Hufflepuff common room entrance waiting for him when he entered the corridor. He was almost one hundred percent certain that Sam had already had a word with Rachel before he’d even talked to Blaine. 

When she spotted Blaine, a gigantic smile bloomed on her lips. 

“Hi!” The brunette greeted him, throwing her arms around his neck in a tight embrace.

Blaine couldn’t help smiling, too. “Hi.”

“You up to me talking your ear off about what I’ve learned as my first month as Head Girl?” She grinned, hooking her arm through Blaine’s.

“Absolutely” He grinned right back, for once actually not minding the slightest bit that he was going to be listening to Rachel talk for hours. He was just happy to finally get a longer moment to spend with her.

And that’s exactly what she did. They went up to the Prefect’s bathroom and just sat on one of the windowsills, Blaine mostly listening to Rachel, sneaking a word in every now and then. This was mostly because Rachel’s life had been far more eventful than Blaine’s the last five weeks. 

“It’s been crazy being Head Girl. No wonder you didn’t want the Head Boy badge” She breathed out with a shake of her head, reaching out to grab the Hufflepuff’s hand. She looked him in the eyes with a soft but somehow sad smile. “You’re okay, right? You’re not drowning yourself in responsibilities? Because that’s what I’ve heard, and that’s what I’m afraid you’ll do.”

Blaine swallowed thickly, shaking his head. “No. At least now I’m trying not to. It’s a little challenging, but I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Not if you don’t take time for yourself, you won’t. My dad – the muggle one” She smiled a little. “He’s always talking about self-care. It seems like such an obvious thing but it really isn’t. You need to take care of yourself, Blaine. And your relationships, too. You’re a good enough student as it is, always have been. You don’t need to get crazy. There’s time for everything.”

The Hufflepuff chewed on his lower lip, squeezing back at Rachel’s hand. 

“Speaking of which, I’m not going to want to keep you here for any longer. You should be getting to Kurt” She continued before the boy even had time to think about what to say. “A relationship as precious as the one you two have should be cherished to the max, you know” Rachel just kept on smiling, inching a little closer to Blaine to hug him. 

This time it was Blaine who was quicker. He got up and hugged Rachel as tight as he could, pressing a kiss o her cheek once he let go. “I love you a lot, you know.”

“So you keep telling me” She winked and sent him on his way with a small wave. 

Blaine wasn’t sure how, but he somehow remembered to stop by the Great Hall to grab something for lunch on his way to the Slytherin dungeon and called it progress.  
It felt so odd not sitting in the common room with his every limb cramping, neck threatening to snap at any given moment, surrounded by parchments waiting to be covered in words and textbook pages expecting to be read as soon as possible. It was almost like he had been detached from society for a while, cramming for exam after exam and only going out of his room for class and a quidditch practice every now and then.

Just that was what made Blaine really realize that what he had been doing so far was truly not the way to do things, and made the note to actually really thank Sam for his persistence later. 

He turned to his left and found himself in the corridor where he was supposed to be, in front of the entrance to the Slytherin dungeon.  
“Pure-blood” The Hufflepuff said clearly, rolling his eyes at how the password was sill the exact same one as it always had been. He wasn’t sure if he was surprised or not that despite rumored numerous complaints nobody had done anything about it.

All his thoughts about some stupid password melted away instantly at the sight of Kurt, though. 

The Slytherin was seated at the stairs at the end of the passage but bounced up and turned around immediately upon hearing someone come in, his whole face lighting up when he saw the Hufflepuff standing there. 

“Blaine” He just breathed out, leaping up the few stairs between them and placing his hands on both sides of Blaine’s face. “About time.”  
Before Blaine got the opportunity to speak at all, Kurt’s lips were on his and he really couldn’t complain. He sighed happily and circled his arms around Kurt’s waist. 

Kurt leaned back, his hands never leaving Blaine’s face as he proceeded to scatter light kisses everywhere on the boy’s face that he could. 

“I missed you” The Slytherin said with a grinning smile as a form of explanation, which to Blaine just answered with a chuckle.  
“Me, too, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen you plenty of times this and last week.”

Kurt let go of Blaine’s face and grabbed his hand instead, guiding them on one of the uncomfortable looking leather sofas in the room.  
“Don’t worry” Kurt sat down and winced, looking up at his boyfriend with a crunched up nose. “They don’t just look the part, these are really uncomfortable, but we’ve kind of just come to accept and get used to that.”

Blaine didn’t really care that much because he ended up sitting on the couch with most of his weight leaning completely on Kurt anyway. “Just like the password?” He questioned, burying his face in the Slytherin’s chest. 

“What password?” Kurt asked with his eyebrows furrowed as he wrapped his arms around Blaine.

“The one to this common room” Blaine clarified, although most of it muffled into Kurt’s robes.

“Oh” Kurt breathed in recognition. “Yeah, that. Even I’ve complained about it” The boy shook his head and ran his fingers through Blaine’s hair. “They just can’t change it because it represents the history of the house so well and it's always been the same” He rolled his eyes. “They still fail to recognize that it has been a while since these houses were first founded and that they have evolved through the years.”

“Not Hufflepuff. I mean, not really” Blaine pondered.

“Yeah. No badger would be sitting in this room if it was the 10th century.”

“That’s true. No badger *should* be sitting here even now. This place is kind of creepy” It was Blaine’s turn to crunch up his nose as he detached himself enough from Kurt to look at the lamps glowing green above them.

Kurt chuckled, looking at the boy in his arms fondly. “If you’re used to being surrounded by sunlight and soft yellow cushions and houseplants then yes.”

Blaine just hummed his agreement and snuggled back into Kurt’s chest while Kurt continued to smile down at him.

It was completely quiet for a moment, Blaine just steadying his breath and basking in the comfort of Kurt’s heartbeat and the rise and fall of his chest before the Slytherin spoke up again. 

“Sam told me everything, by the way.”

“He told me you’d been prompting him to talk to me.”

“Yeah, but we worked together.”

“Thank you.”

“What do you mean thank you? Me getting you out of your head and your dormitory was totally selfish” Kurt declared with a small laugh.

“Well, either way, I owe you.”

“Yeah, no. You owe me nothing. You’re here and frankly that’s all I care about.”

Blaine smiled into Kurt’s chest. “Me, too.”

“Is it not cool if I say that I hate that you have to deal with all that?” Kurt asked quietly, somehow pulling Blaine even more into his chest in the process.

Blaine let out a weak chuckle. “What’s not cool is you using the word ‘hate’ so freely” He looked up at the boy’s blue eyes and smiled in that way that made his own eyes sparkle. “It’s a very strong word, Mr. Hummel.”

Kurt quirked an eyebrow and grinned ever so slightly. “Yeah, that’s why I’m using it.”

The Hufflepuff shook his head and laced his fingers with the other boy’s. “Well, I guess it isn’t” He finally said thoughtfully. “I don’t love it myself, but-“

“No, that’s not what I mean. Of course you don’t. It’s just-“ Kurt searched for the exact words he wanted to use to allow Blaine to understand that his hatred wasn’t really targeted toward Blaine at all and much more at himself. “I wish I knew how to do something about it, that’s it. I feel really useless sometimes.”

Blaine’s heart skipped a beat. He sat slightly more upright in the belief that it would help Kurt take his words more seriously. “Well first off, you really can't. Which is why there’s no need for you to feel that way. You’re so far from that. Do you know how many times I would’ve been more than a little lost if it wasn’t for you supporting me?”

The Slytherin just shook his head. “Not really. I try, but I-“

“Let me tell you” Blaine squeezed Kurt’s hand. “Right now is a good example. I’m falling asleep on you, yes, but if it wasn’t for you I would be falling asleep on my books, probably forgetting about both eating and Quidditch.”

Kurt’s eyes widened, shock starting to be written all over his face. “You were not-“

“No, hush” Blaine shot him a look, smiling slightly in amusement. “I’m doing both of those things again, let me tell you this.  
You’re amazing, and the fact that you want to be here for me is absurd. It’s crazy.”

It was the same warm feeling that only Blaine had been capable of making Kurt feel returning to his chest with those words. “Maybe it’s just you” He smirked, kissing the top of the Hufflepuff’s head with an obnoxious smack – that was if it had come from anyone else but him. Because it was Kurt, Blaine just laughed, grabbing the front of Kurt’s robes lazily and looking him in the eyes. 

“Considering everything - yeah, possibly.”

“Well” Kurt started, leaning in so close that their noses were touching. “At least your crazy goes well with my lack of morals.”

This time Blaine didn’t bother trying to silence the other boy with words, but chose to wipe the smirk off of his face in the best way he knew how and closed the barely-there gap between their lips. 

“I’m not sure you can talk about lacking morals while you’re dating me – someone you should despise.”

“Oh but can’t you see, I do despise you, big time” Kurt smiled, failing to commit to his words. Blaine smiled too, and the Slytherin kissed the top of his nose lightly before letting him actually fall asleep on him, right there where there were surely going to be Slytherins of all ages swarming sooner or later. The thing was that with the way Kurt felt like he was going to burst with love just watching the boy softly snoring into his chest, he just couldn’t care less about anything else in the world.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I really wanted to write something even a little bit Halloween related, but I ended up procrastinating so much with editing this chapter (what else is new) that now it's a little late, but I hope that you can deal with that.
> 
> As per usual, I am so very thankful for all of your reads and love and I just want to give you all the biggest hug.

The Great Hall was generally well known for being the very epitome of magic and the students at Hogwarts were reminded of just that on several occasions every year in case they somehow managed to forget.

With autumn in full swing and Halloween right around the corner, the hall looked more than the part for the season. There were pumpkins of various shapes and sizes, some carved and some not, floating around and dancing under the crispy, colorful leaves falling down from the ceiling that was beautifully disguised as the darkening evening sky. 

The long house tables were almost bending under the weight of even more pumpkins, not to mention peacefully flickering candles going on throughout the lengths of each table and lanterns as well as fireplaces crackling as background noise.

Every now and then a bat or two managed to bat their way down from the sky, and spiders roaming around in the middle of their food and pumpkins, making webs, weren’t an unusual sighting. But an unpleasant one? For some, definitely. 

“Oh for the love of Merlin, I do not want spiders in my bread!” Santana shook the harvestman off of her slice of bread in one quick flick, shuddering in disgust while the poor eight-legged creature went flying across the room.

The fifth years sitting right next to them looked at her in horror. 

"Dude, that was Flint" One of them muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. "I hope he's okay."

Kurt hid his laughter behind his cup of pumpkin juice, not particularly looking to get slapped. He knew Santana well enough to recognize the difference between her being completely out of patience and her just being her fairly vehement, usual self. 

“Are /you/ okay?” He asked, hiding his amusement poorly despite trying very hard.

“I just want to eat in peace” The girl sighed and focused on pouring soup onto her plate, ceasing to comment on any of the conversations around her for the next fifteen minutes.

Once they were both done eating, she leaned her head on Kurt’s shoulder and looked up at him, answering the question he hadn’t wanted to repeat; “Yes, I am fine. I have just already dealt with so many idiots today that I can barely tolerate anything anymore.”

“Ah” The boy nodded in understanding. “I’m sorry.”

“None of that, Hummel” She waved him off and lifted her head up, glancing at the clock on the wall. It was nearing six. “What’s on your agenda for the rest of today?”

Kurt smiled instantly. “Uh, I think that Blaine said something about wanting to carve a pumpkin. Together. How that’ll work, I don’t know, but knowing us-”

“Okay, that is disgustingly cute” Santana cut him off, nudging his arm with her elbow. “I have an allergy. I’ve gots to leave before the symptoms kick in.”

The boy just chuckled, so used to how Santana preferred to show affection with more or less insulting yet endearing compliments. He was just glad that she had some way to do that and prove every once in a while that she wasn't a thing of metal or wood or something else emotion-resistant.

“At least they don’t make it pour rain on us every day” She took a final look at the ceiling, plucking a leaf out of her hair before getting up from the bench with a small wave at her best friend. 

At this point she just couldn’t wait to spend the rest of her day lying in bed doing nothing. Only the universe didn’t quite have that in mind for her. 

“Hey, Lopez” Sebastian’s bored voice greeted Santana just as she’d got outside the Great Hall, and her first thought was to go through every possible curse word she’d ever heard. If the day’s theme for her was interactions with idiots, this was certainly the ultimate way to end the day. She had already had to sit through a conversation between three fifth year Slytherins in the common room earlier that day, trying her hardest not to combust at the utterly idiotic ideas they had for their Halloween costumes. She was surprised none of them had said they wanted to be a witch for the occasion, but a cat didn’t sound any better. Especially when said cat was apparently going to be ‘a muggle version of the costume, not an animagus kinda thing’.

This was beginning to be too much even for her. 

She turned around to face the other Slytherin with a wildly exaggerated roll of her eyes - hoping more than anything that she would’ve had a visibility cloak on her, just to get a stack of parchments shoved into her hands. 

“Put these up for me, please?” The boy asked, his usual ever so present smirk nowhere to be seen.

The dark-haired girl accepted the parchments but raised an eyebrow in question without even taking a look at said parchments. “Although I appreciate you having learned the magic word, why the hell would I do that?” 

“If you want to lose your place in the team like Hummel then feel free not to” The boy said nonchalantly, already turning around on his heels when his words only began to hit Santana. 

“Wait, what did you say?” She practically shrieked out, proceeding to chuckle in sheer disbelief. 

Sebastian sighed heavily. “Hummel’s off the team. We need a new Seeker, and if this continues soon we’ll also need a new Chaser.”

Santana’s eyes widened and she shook her head vigorously, anger flaring up inside of her chest. “Why in Merlin’s name would Hummel be off the team?! He’s the best Seeker there is!”

“He’s underperforming” Sebastian turned back around and looked into Santana’s eyes with his teeth gritted together, as if those two words were enough of an explanation. “We can’t have that.”

“That’s bullshit!” She screamed, startling several younger Gryffindor by-goers. “He’s as good as he’s always been. And don’t even try to tell me that this has something to do with his grades or something because 1. he’s acing every class and 2. we both know neither of us would be in the team if outstanding academic success was a requirement!”

“No, it’s actually just about the fact that he’s barely attending practice and spending that time with someone who we both know is going to end up getting in the way of our team’s success.”

Santana froze for a fraction of a second. 

Blaine.

He was talking about Blaine.

The girl was pretty sure she could no longer see anything through the steam that was coming out of her ears, but that didn’t disable her verbal capabilities. “Yeah, that’s right! He is going to get in the way of our success, but not because of Kurt, no, but purely because he’s better than any of us. Face it, Smythe! He’s always been better than you! Better of a captain, better of a player, better of a person!” She counted each thing with her fingers, her eyes never leaving the boy’s. “You’ve literally got nothing on him, so you choose to attack what’s most important to him. I have to say, that’s pretty damn low even of you.”

“No” Sebastian said sternly, although he was practically shaking with anger himself. “This is solely about Kurt not living up to the expectation, that is it.”

“We are not going to get anywhere without him!” Santana hissed through her teeth.

“We’ll see about that” And with that he was gone.

The Latina had to truly put work in so that she wouldn’t end up biting her tongue off in rage. 

She stormed out towards the stairs to the second floor and shoved the flyers in her hands to the first person to walk by. 

“Hi” Santana greeted the younger Slytherin who was now looking at her with two raised brows. “Listen. I‘m going to need you to put these up anywhere in the castle but in the Slytherin common room.”

“And why would I do that?” The blonde countered. 

“I know people who could get you into a position where you would have to do my N.E.W.Ts for me” Santana lied smoothly, watching as fear flickered in the younger girl’s eyes momentarily. 

“And also, I have razor blades in my hair, just all up in there."

“Fine” The younger girl sighed and rolled her eyes before closing the book in her hands and tucking it under her arm. 

“And you can’t tell Sebastian Smythe, okay? Remember what I said!” She chirped before the girl left her presence, groaning barely audibly in response. 

In her mind Santana couldn’t help but think that the girl had potential – aside from how easy she was to manipulate, but still. The sorting hat had once again done its job. 

“Thanks!” Santana made sure to shout after her, waving a hand at her disappearing back. 

After this she made her way to the library where she could only hope to find Blaine doing his homework post-practice, like he usually did. 

Considering everything that she had had to tolerate in the past 24 hours she was positively shocked to spot Blaine in his standard far-end corner of the library. 

“Hey, you” She walked over to the table the Hufflepuff was seated at and took the unoccupied chair next to him. 

Blaine looked up from the book his nose was practically buried in and chuckled softly. “Hi to you too, Santana.”

“Look, I need to talk to you about something. Sebastian’s being a bigger ass than ever before. He’s cutting Kurt from the Quidditch team” She earned a well deserved glare from Mr.Figgins who was sorting books into a shelf at the other side of the room and mimicked zipping up her mouth before leaning more on the table to whisper; "-because he claims that he’s underperforming."

Blaine froze. He opened his mouth to say something but found himself completely speechless. His head was beginning to buzz with anger and Santana noticed the thought process from personal experience. 

“He can’t do that” Blaine hissed once he’d finally gathered his thoughts, closing the book in front of him with a thud. 

“Yeah, I know. But I-“

The Hufflepuff took a deep breath, interrupting her before she even got started. “Wait. Does Kurt know?”

Santana squinted at him. “I assume no, but how could I be sure?”

“As unfair as this is, if he doesn’t know I don’t think that he would want us to be planning anything. He will want to deal with this on his own terms.”

“What if I told you that Sebastian thinks that kicking Kurt out is the only way he’s going to get to you? The only way he has left to affect you, to shake you and thus weaken yours and strengthen our team?”

The boy looked into her eyes, feeling like something was closing around his throat. “What?” He managed to get out, but sounded so small it almost made Santana feel bad. 

“I mean he’s an idiot for trying to do so by getting rid of the one player that has actually made us fairly successful, but sure he has a point, which is why you can’t show him that you are affected.”

Blaine shook his head weakly. “How in the world am I going to do that?”

“Well you’re gonna have to figure it out. I only want you to help me with the planning of possible ways to stop this nonsense, but I’m not going to let you act on anything. Sebastian will never know that his plan worked and I will get Kurt back on the team.”

Little did Santana know that her plan would backfire before she even got the chance to do anything.

The girl walked into the Slytherin common room just before seven, and almost fell down the stairs upon seeing what was pinned onto the board on the wall.

In three brisk steps she made it to the announcement cork board, grabbed the crumpled parchment and pulled it off of the surface with such force that the pin that’d been holding it up flew across the room, clattering barely audibly on the cold stone floor.

Kurt’s head snapped up at the sound of parchment being ripped into pieces then, his eyes landing on Santana. “What was that?”

“Oh, that? No, nothing. Just Sebastian’s wildly unnecessary Quidditch announcement.” 

“For what?” He questioned, his eyebrows knitted together. She was pretty sure he could see through her and suddenly she felt very empathetic towards Bloody Baron.

“He’s holding tryouts” She shrugged as she threw the ball of ripped parchment pieces into the fireplace. 

"Oh" The boy sounded incredibly uninterested. "Why?"

“My guess is to humiliate some poor soul by getting them to try out just to tell them that we have a full team and laugh in their face."

“Wow. Well that’s a whole new low for him.”

“Yeah” Santana said flatly, sitting down at the end of the sofa. The conversation at hand was ripping her soul in two and she hadn’t even gotten to the enraging part yet. She bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut. She knew that she had to do something. 

“Okay, uh” She started, then proceeded to mutter out perfectly incoherently; “He’scuttingyoufromtheteam.”

Kurt narrowed his eyes at her. “If I could just get that again, in English, please?”

Santana sighed deeply, wanting anything more than to be telling this to her best friend and possibly the most multi-skilled individual she’d ever met. “He says he’s cutting you from the team and looking for a new Seeker.”

A shrilling silence settled in the room – they could’ve heard a pin dropping two miles away. Then, Kurt exhaled and nodded with a tight smile. “Yeah. So I heard.”

Santana didn’t have any time for silence. “What?” She pretty much just yelled, disbelief written all over her features. “You know? How are you not screaming? It’s not fair! What is wrong with you? Don’t you have any sense of self-respect?”

Kurt on the other hand didn’t have the time to tease Santana about her being so nice and caring about the whole thing because he was so much more frustrated about it than he made it out to be.

“Santana-“

“We need to do something about this, Kurt!” She went on vehemently, standing up and starting to pace the room like she was plotting revenge on the whole entire world. 

“Santana, this is my problem. Not yours” The boy said sternly, lifting his legs up on the chair he was sitting on. “You don’t need to do anything, nor will I let you.”

“What are you going to do then?” She was quick to ask, a tinge of anger still evident in her voice. Whether that was for Kurt or for Sebastian or for the universe in general – he couldn’t begin to tell. 

“There’s nothing I can do except watch the damn team fail without me” He snapped, letting far more of his irritation show than he'd have preferred.

“Yes you damn sure can! We are the oldest at this school, we should rule, we know all the spells that some of the younger people have no idea about! Let’s turn someone’s bones into jelly and they can’t even try out! You have to be the Seeker, there’s nobody else who can do what you can.”

“I appreciate your enthusiasm, but for once I’m not going to go against Sebastian. He is clearly setting himself out for failure, and besides, I don’t want any of this to affect Blaine in any way.”

“Well that’s too late” Santana spat out, crossing her arms against her chest defensively.

“Santana!” 

“What? Did you really think that I wouldn’t go to him instantly after hearing? Especially when Sebastian’s entire goal is to sabotage the Hufflepuff house team!”

“Well he can’t” Kurt said like he’d thought this whole thing through dozens of times. “I’m done with Sebastian trying to meddle with me and my life. I want to see him fail for once, and he’s practically guaranteed to now.”

Santana sighed again. “Well I guess you know what you’re doing.”

Kurt scoffed humorlessly. “Yeah. Thanks.”

When he met Blaine for their pumpkin carving date twenty minutes later, he could tell from a mile away just how agitated he was and it didn’t require much thinking to know just why.

“Blaine, we’re not going to do this. I just talked with Santana and I’m totally done, I’m not going to-“

“No, I know” The Hufflepuff cut him off, grabbing his hand and pressing the briefest kiss to his forehead before pulling him in for a hug. “I talked with her earlier too, and I promised that I wouldn’t interfere or let your ever so charming captain-" The sarcasm that fit into those three words was almost astounding. "-know how much it breaks my heart that he’s taking away your chance to shine, because apparently that is essentially his desire. But it’s not easy. I thought about stepping down-”

“No. That’s exactly what he wants. Not gonna happen.”

“Kurt, I’m not going to do it. It did cross my mind, but Santana will come for me-“

“So will I.”

“Yeah, I know. I won’t do anything, I promise.”

Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine’s waist as tight as he could, burying his face in his neck. “And I was stupid enough to think that he was done with us.”

“I’m sorry that I keep getting you into these situations…” Blaine breathed, the sudden, genuine sadness in his voice shattering Kurt’s heart.

“No. He’s had it out for me even before I ever said a word to you. That's the kind of person he is. It’s not your fault – end of discussion.”

“How about a change of plans?” The Hufflepuff asked, smiling slightly. 

Kurt leaned back to look into Blaine's eyes, somehow instantly feeling more anchored onto the earth. He did not understand what the boy was talking about though. “What?” He asked with his brows furrowed.

“We can carve the pumpkin like we planned, but how about just- smashing a few first? In the name of anger management, of course.”

Kurt laughed - really laughed, for the first time all day and squeezed Blaine's hand gratefully. “Yes, please.”


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm beyond ashamed at both how long it took me to finally get to this point and how many attempts at this chapter it took me to get it somehow right - to get to this point.  
> But here I am now, updating, and letting yall know that there will be at least one if not two chapters still before Christmas, seeing as I have already written the next chapter halfway through and my break begins in roughly a week, thus giving me a little more time to write. 
> 
> Anyways, as always I thank you so very much for reading and I will try to come back at you with the next chapter shortly. Mwah.

A week went by and Sebastian held his Quidditch tryouts exactly five days before they were set to play against Ravenclaw. Because as Santana had put it, there was no way in hell she was not going to go and spy on what was going to go down, they got to know exactly what had gone down the second the tryouts were over. 

Santana wasn’t sure she had ever ran as fast as she had from the stadium to the Slytherin common room to rat out the scum of the earth that was their Quidditch captain.

She sat down next to Kurt who had been waiting a good while for her to come back and focused all of his attention on her all the while trying and colossally failing to sound nonchalant. “Anything that we predicted?”

“Everything that we predicted” The girl breathed out heavily, trying to calm down from literally sprinting several miles just moments ago. “He didn’t even glance at anyone who was a fourth year or younger and only let two people on a broomstick.”

Santana bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt to ground herself and keep from losing her cool permanently. 

“He didn’t pick anyone, Kurt” She said so calmly that it made the boy feel slightly scared. “No one. We don’t have a seeker. We’re short one player! We can’t play with that squad.”

Kurt rubbed a hand over his face and exhaled loudly, whatever tiny bit of nonchalance he’d possessed chipping away. “I hate that I can’t do anything.”

“You totally could…” Santana muttered, crossing her arms against her chest petulantly.

The boy took a deep breath. To say that his best friend was sort of getting on his nerves would’ve been a gigantic understatement. “Without getting expelled, Santana” He said, punctuating each word to make himself even remotely clear to the stubborn girl.

“Well then I guess you could at least go and ask Sue Sylvester if there’s something you can do.”

So Kurt did. The next day he went up to talk with their Headmaster and told her about the situation with their Quidditch team, to which she replied; “Oh, Mr. Hummel, there’s nothing I can do about that.”

The Slytherin tilted his head, squinting at the woman questioningly. “What?”

“It’s your team, you decide who plays” She shrugged, getting up from behind her desk and walking over to the windowsill to brush dust off of a wonky, silver candelabra.

“I’m afraid you didn’t hear me, Professor. I’m not the captain, and I was kicked out. We haven’t had a seeker as of last week and we won’t have one in time for the match in five days.”

She turned around on her heels at this, looking a little more outraged than he thought was appropriate for the topic of discussion at hand. “Well, you should have told me instantly!” She exclaimed, shaking her head in disbelief. “I swear you seventh years think you’re so smart and that everyone can read your minds… You can’t play the game, of course!”

Kurt bit his lip. There was no way he was going to aim his anger at the highest authority at all of Hogwarts, even if she had the biggest case of selective auditory attention he’d ever come across. “Yes, that is kind of the root of the problem. I-“

“Not you. Your house team” She scoffed, grabbing a piece of parchment and writing something down on it vehemently. “Slytherin’s not eligible to play, so it’s a win for Ravenclaw.”

The boy’s eyes widened. “Pardon me?” Had Sebastian really just lost them the first game of the season? Of course he’d known that that would result of a player shortage, but since when had one team’s ineligibility to participate in a scheduled game resulted in the other team’s automatic win?

“That’s a new rule, my friend. But you’ll have another shot in about a month or two, I believe” Professor Sylvester looked up from the parchment she was writing on as if she’d read his mind. “Maybe try and get yourself back on the team.”

“How?” He just asked, sounding so petulant that Santana would’ve been proud, crossing his arms against his chest for good measure.  
“Between you and me, I will put in word for your peroxide blonde Head of House and inform her that that Smythe kid is not eligible to be captain no more. That’s your opportunity.”

Kurt swallowed. She was being serious. He finally had the chance to become Slytherin’s house team captain. But at what cost? He could only find out.

“I will keep you posted. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Mr. Hummel. Now, get the hell out of my office.”

After that a few very overwhelming days occurred. Santana was both furious and ecstatic – furious about both the cancellation of the game and the automatic win that Ravenclaw had gotten out of it, although it didn’t really benefit Ravenclaw in any way, but ecstatic about Sebastian’s possible permanent, complete detachment from the team. 

The Slytherin house was divided in three in light of the happening. There were the ones who were like Santana, throwing stuff around and cursing endlessly that they hadn’t even gotten a chance to kick the Ravenclaws’ asses and then there were the ones who were the opposite of this who thought that it was a completely fair decision that had been made. These two groups of Slytherins just fought continuously for an entire day before someone snapped somebody’s wand and they all collectively decided fighting wasn’t going to change anything. 

The third portion of Slytherins were the ones who didn’t care about the whole thing at all. These were mostly the few youngest and oldest who deemed they had much better things to do and nobody doubted them. 

Kurt didn’t feel that he belonged with any of these divided groups of Slyhterins though. He was mostly convinced he was to blame for the whole entire mess. The creeping feeling that everything was actually his fault kept pushing into his mind although he knew very well that there was no universe in which that could be possible. Before he knew it he found himself thinking about how what he was feeling was how Blaine felt every day in one way or another and his heart ached.

His bundle of tangled thoughts finally began to untangle when Professor Washington came by the chambers after dinner on Friday and presented him with the Captain badge. 

“This is yours now, Mr. Hummel. I have faith in you, and even if I didn’t there’s no way in hell you could mess this up worse than your predecessor” The woman said, dropping the small, glimmering silver and green badge into his hand. 

“Lead the team well” She smiled and winked before turning around on her heels and heading out of the common room with her robes flapping behind her. 

“I will” Kurt closed his hand around the badge and smiled down at it as the few people gathered in the room began clapping, Santana leading by example. 

The boy chuckled at the applause and performed a quick curtsy, only to be brought back to reality by who else than Sebastian himself.  
He clapped slowly as he made his way to Kurt through the room like the cheesiest villain from some of the movies Finn had forced him to watch. And as if the whole debacle hadn’t already by then been made into a much bigger thing that it needed to be, he started not with congratulations, but with: ”So it seems you managed to bring me down after all.” 

Kurt resisted the urge to scoff. He had already blamed himself for causing such a fuss for a long enough time that now that the same accusation came from Sebastian, he didn’t believe it anymore – because it was so far from the truth. 

“Please save yourself and don’t go on, okay? Your delinquency has nothing to do with me, and it was from the moment you decided that destroying a rivaling team’s captain outside of the game was more important than the actual game that you were shoo-in to lose your captaincy. It was only a matter of time until that really happened.”

“You can’t handle leading the team” Sebastian told him, his expression unwavering. “You’re not cut out for it.”

Kurt just nodded, smiling ever so slightly just for the chance that he could piss Sebastian off a little more. “Sure I can. Especially now that you have nothing to do with it.”

While he was sure that Sebastian turning around with a huff and heading up to the dormitories without another word had everything to do with Santana glaring at him from behind Kurt’s back, he was happy about how they’d come to the end of this circle. 

“Onward and upward, everyone. I promise nobody’s wand is going to need reparo performed on it while I’m captain” Kurt smiled at the third year girl especially, who waved her now fixed up wand in her hand and blushed all the while attempting to smile back. 

-

“So where are we headed again?” Santana asked from where she was walking right behind Kurt and Blaine, on their way to Hogsmeade, shoving her violently shivering hands in the pockets of her robes. 

“Oh, well, I thought that maybe-“ Blaine started, and before he even got to present his actual idea Santana cut him off.

“Oh, no! Don’t you even think about it. We are not stepping foot in Madam Puddifoot’s, am I clear?”

Kurt looked over his shoulder, shooting an amused grin at his best friend. “Aw, are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m very sure” She said flatly, rolling her eyes. “There’s no way that I will go to Puddifoot’s withouts my Britt and because I can’t rescue her from detention – I tried, that’s not an option.”

“Well, I think Sam and Quinn are already waiting at Three Broomsticks anyway. Let’s go.”

Luckily it only took them a few more minutes to get to Three Broomsticks, Santana swearing the whole way that she would get an actual brain freeze if they weren’t there in two seconds.  
Once they got in, they were greeted by Madame Rosmerta and her usual warm smile (and far warmer temperature than outside), instantly welcomed into the cozy pub along with dozens of other students. Although the place was really crowded it never ceased to be an incredibly comfortable place to be in, which Santana never wasted an opportunity to joke about. 

“Well, it’s better to get comfortable now than in ten years when we’re bound the end up here for good anyways.”

Quinn rolled her eyes at this, Sam scoffing into his bottle of butterbeer. 

“Some of us are Quidditch captains though, so future plans aren't an issue for all” Santana continued, elbowing Kurt’s side with a grin.

“Oh, yeah!” Sam shouted, putting down his drink and splashing a generous amount on the table in the process. “Congrats, man! That is so cool!”

It was only then that Blaine really caught up to the conversation, slowly lowering his own butterbeer from his lips. He tilted his head, shooting Sam a questioning look. “What?”

It was also then that Kurt realized he had yet to have this conversation with Blaine. 

“Uh, nothing” Kurt said evenly, directing a very not subtle cutthroat gesture Sam’s way so that he knew just what would be in store for him if this conversation wasn’t steered into another direction immediately. 

“Yeah” Blaine said slowly. “That’s exactly what it seems like.”

The Slytherin turned to sit more towards the Hufflepuff and inhaled sharply. “Okay. I kind of took Sebastian’s place as captain yesterday, and I meant to tell you, but someone-” He glared at Sam. “-beat me to it.”

Blaine just stared at him for a moment, mouth agape, before grabbing his hand and squeezing it tightly. “That’s-“

“You’ll be rivaling captains.”

“Thank you, Santana” Kurt bit sarcastically, rolling his eyes at her. 

“Can I, uh- talk to you for a second?”

“Of course” Kurt got up and let Blaine lead him to the corridor where the restrooms were, out of everyone’s immediate earshot. 

It was a little darker, the lights slightly dimmer than in the main bar area, but Blaine’s eyes were still glimmering like they somehow always were. 

“When were you planning on telling me?” He asked, loosening his grip on Kurt’s hand before letting go completely, causing it to almost lifelessly fall against his side. 

“Today, I just told you. I only officially knew yesterday, as I also told you.”

The Hufflepuff nodded, but remained looking like a hundred and one things were still bothering him.

“I really did want to tell you, myself, but what can you do with Sam.”

“How did he even get to know before me?”

“Honestly, Blaine? You aren’t up to date with the rumors, any of them – ever, whether they are true or not. I know you don’t care for them and that’s not a bad thing! You only found out that stupid thing about me causing you your knee injury back then from Sam.”

“Well, that wasn’t true. This is.”

Kurt sighed. “I know, and I’m sorry, I am, but there’s nothing I can do about it now and it’s not like it’s that big of a deal anyway. I’m captain and you are, too. That’s it, right?”

“Is this your way of trying to protect me?” The Hufflepuff asked, ignoring Kurt's question completely.

Kurt was silent for a moment, just blinking at the boy in confusion. “From what? From Sebastian? I don’t think that that is necessary.”

“He hates me, Kurt, and he especially hates me being captain, but he doesn’t like you either. If this all is happening because you think he’s now going to target you instead of me, I can’t get behind it.”

“I’m not like Sebastian, Blaine. I’m not conniving or arrogant or any of those things that he is. I’m captain because I have wanted to be captain for as long as I have been at this school and because I’m fit to be in the position. If it just so happens that he gives up on harassing you, that’s a very welcomed perk of this captaincy.”

“Kurt” Blaine said, almost pleading, his eyes painfully earnest. “I’m happy that you’ve finally got to where you want to be, you don’t even know, and there’s nobody who could be a better fit for the position, but Sebastian is not going to stop harassing either of us. You know that he just hates people for fun, or at least he did until the stunt that lead to his misconducting, but now he has an actual reason to hate you.”

“I know that, but I don’t care about Sebastian or whatever the hell it is that he wants or doesn’t want, and I honestly don’t think that I should care. I don’t want to waste another moment thinking about someone who has such little significance to my life. I’ve spent so much time clenching my teeth and suffering through playing and living under his idiocy, so now that I don’t need to anymore, I won’t. He wants to hate me for something he made happen? Be my guest. I just really don’t care. ”

“Maybe you should” The Hufflepuff worried his lip between his teeth. 

“I’m not like you, Blaine!” Kurt finally snapped, the way this had been made into another huge thing sitting so wrong with him. “I’m not physically capable of caring about every single little insignificant thing with every fiber of my being. That’s not me. I’m in no way perfect like you are.”

“Yeah” Blaine said, shaking his head, sounding so devastated and angry at the same time that it took all of two seconds for Kurt to realize that he had never in his life screwed up quite as royally as he had now. Blaine just felt like his heart had dropped at his feet. “Because it’s so perfect to care far too much about everything and everyone, to have no control over what you care about. I’m so perfect that sometimes my body just decides to shut down on me.”

“Blaine, I-“He started, but Blaine waved it off. 

“No, I know. It’s hard to keep up with me. I’m sorry.”

“No, that’s not what I was going to say at all, you know-“

“What I know is that I really don’t have the energy to do whatever this is right now” The Hufflepuff said quietly, looking into the Slytherin’s eyes, a mix of all things that he didn’t want to see there swirling in his hazel-honey ones. “I’ll see you on Monday?” 

At Kurt’s jerky nod Blaine turned on his heels and headed out of the pub, leaving back to the castle without another word and Kurt was left feeling like he’d just made the biggest mistake of his life so far. 

If this was the price that he had to pay for being captain, he was going to hand over the badge the next day. But it wasn't. This had nothing to do with it, and everything to do with plain inconsideration - all on his part. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry yall. I really promise I'll try to update again soon.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I hope all yall are having wonderful lives and that your holiday preparations are going fine, if you do those.
> 
> I know I told you i would post two more chapters before Christmas, which for me is the 24th, and I intend on keeping that promise, so look out for that.
> 
> As per usual I want to thank you endlessly for reading what I write. THANK YOU. You are all so cool.
> 
> (I have also been attempting to do the Klaine Advent challenge over on my tumblr @youmakemyheartgosuperwhee, so if ya wanna read drabbles written in fifteen minutes & most of the time with sleep deprivation, feel free to visit) xo

On Monday morning Kurt stormed into the Great Hall barely in time for breakfast and turned on its head the entire hierarchy of the school by heading straight to the Hufflepuff house table without even granting a glance at the Slytherin one, sitting down at the end right next to Blaine. 

The Hufflepuff startled, but didn’t look up from where he was intently stabbing the eggs on his plate, clearly knowing who had interrupted him. 

“Blaine” Kurt started, suddenly feeling just plain dumb. “I-“

“Can we talk about this later?” 

“No, you told me Monday. Now’s Monday. I’m not going to wait a minute more to figure this out” He told him sternly. “And even if you don’t want to talk to me, which I understand, I just need to say that I’m so sorry, I had absolutely no right…”

“Kurt, will you please stop acting like you’re the one who has done something wrong?” Blaine asked, finally lifting up his head, turning to look at his boyfriend pleadingly. 

The Slytherin froze for a moment, and just stared at Blaine blankly. “Wait, what?”

The boy chuckled humorlessly, looking so upset it was completely absurd. “There was no reason for me to come at you for the captain thing. I was in no place to have any kind of conversation with anyone, and it was too easy to let everything out on you.”

“But-“

Blaine reached over to grab Kurt’s hand hesitantly. “I’ve told you before I get days where I feel like the world’s against me and it’s nobody else’s fault but mine, but it doesn’t give me the right to act the way that I did. You clearly-” 

“-went out of my way to be ignorant like nobody has ever been, and that’s completely unacceptable.”

“I’m sure worse things have happened. And when I say I’m sure, I’m really sure.”

The Slytherin raised his brows at this questioningly. 

“My father used to be constantly telling me how I was making everything up and how he’d never felt anxiety in his life, causing me to believe that no such thing even existed for a solid year before they finally separated with mom and she practically dragged me talk to someone.” 

“I’m glad she did” Kurt said quietly. “Your father sounds like someone I wouldn’t necessarily want to be around.”

“Yeah” Blaine inhaled sharply, chuckling at the Slytherin’s oddly and in this case highly unnecessarily eloquent words. “Well that’s why I’m not going home for Christmas. Mom said that he had some real estate stuff he wanted to discuss with her when he’s in town over the holidays. Something about wanting to buy our house from her because allegedly it’s still his. It’s not, but it was, and he knows that all that was changed with the divorce. It’s just that now suddenly dad doesn’t believe her.”

Kurt looked at him, mouth agape, not sure which part of the story to touch first. “And she has to deal with all of this on Christmas?”

The Hufflepuff shrugged. “Dad’s out of town and even out of country a lot, working internationally for the ministry of magic, so I guess that’s his only opportunity. But my mom sounded like she didn’t mind. She said that she couldn’t wait to see him fall flat on his face.”

“So are you staying here for Christmas or…?”

Blaine nodded. 

“Me, too” Kurt said before he could stop himself. 

“What? No, Kurt, your family-“

“-is okay with it. They don’t mind. I’ve talked to them-“ He definitely hadn’t. “And I wouldn’t leave you alone here anyway no matter how hard you tried, so don’t.”

The Hufflepuff sighed deeply, rolling his eyes mostly fondly at the boy. “Okay. But know that you've said what you wanted, I need to say something.”

Kurt tilted his head to one side, trying to push away any nervousness he could feel sneaking up on him.

“I really am so happy about you being captain, I hope you know that ” The Hufflepuff smiled slightly. “You deserve it.”

“I know you are” Kurt nodded in confirmation, squeezing Blaine’s hand in his as he allowed himself to sigh in relief. 

“Good. Then I also assume you know how happy I am to win the next game against you and your team” The shorter boy’s smile turned into a grin, a playful glint appearing in his eyes. 

“Now that’s not what’s going to happen.”

Suddenly he was reminded of the first ever proper conversations they’d had and he couldn’t stop smiling at both how much they had and hadn’t changed since.

After this Kurt half-forgot about the whole conversation and especially the part about his plans for the holidays. It took him weeks to take it up with anyone, but the day he did they had a few days of classes left before their break and he knew he was going to get so much flack for sharing the news so last minute. 

The day before the train was leaving Kurt found Finn and Rachel lying on the Slytherin common room floor, Santana glaring at them from the sofa every two seconds.  
“You know that you’re not supposed to be here, right?”

“No, but Kurt’s fine with-“

“I am going to be. Here” Kurt cut his stepbrother off, wanting to slap himself for how utterly incoherent he suddenly was. 

“What?”

The Slytherin fiddled with the seam of the blanket on his lap. “I don’t think that I’m going to go home for Christmas.”

Rachel looked up from the floor with wide eyes and Finn just furrowed his eyebrows like he was trying to process an impossible mathematical equation.

Santana turned to sit fully towards him, crossing her legs. “Excuse me?” 

Kurt had absolutely no reason to feel bad about this. His father and Carole would understand once he explained his motives to them, he knew that they would. And even if they wouldn’t, Burt knew that his son couldn’t be stopped from going after what he wanted and that he was nothing if not persistent, so getting him home if he had already decided against it was not going to happen. 

The Latina lifted her hand up and looked at the two Gryffindors lying on the floor. “Okay, hold up. Excuse me while I slap some sense into my best friend here” She told them before turning back towards Kurt. 

“Are you out of your mind? You can’t do that.”

“Why can’t I?”

“It’s selfish, Kurt. Your dad has seen you twice a year for the last seven years and I am not going to let you take that from him.”  
“I want to experience at least one Christmas at Hogwars, really, I-“

“No. That’s not what this is about. You have got to experience six of them and you are experience one right this moment. It’s the same here for all of December, but on our actual holiday the only exception is that there are less people around. That is not it.”

Kurt sighed. It was much easier to lie when your best friend didn’t see right through you. 

“It’s just- Blaine” Kurt breathed out, looking Santana in the eyes for the first time the whole conversation. “He won’t be going home for the holidays because his dad will be there and he’s a jerk, so I said I would happily stay here with him.”

Santana pulled a face that was almost empathetic. “Happily my ass.”

The boy snorted. “Yeah, well, of course I want to spend time at home, but I love Blaine and I would never leave him to be alone, let alone at Christmas. As far as I’m concerned that’s not only an A+++ level bad boyfriend thing to do, but also just a general crappy human thing to do, and especially when I'm kind of on thin ice to begin with…”

“Well, smartass” Santana started, reaching out to grab her best friend’s hand with a tiny smile. “You could invite him home with you.”  
“No” Kurt said instantly, shaking his head vigorously.

“And why is that? He would be stuck here anyway, so it’s not like any of his family could be against it, right? And Burt knows about you two, knows about him – he has to because taken how you never talk about anything but Blaine he must already know his exact time of birth and what his dog’s name was when he was in preschool.”

“No, they met. It’s really not that…”

“Then what the hell is it?”

“I’m just afraid of asking him, Santana. It’s not a small thing to ask for, especially considering the fact that he could hate me right now and I wouldn’t blame him-“

“Could you drop that? You could hate him just the same, if you’re talking about what happened-“

“I could never hate him.”

“Yeah well, exactly. He loves you, you idiot. He’d do anything for you. The shit you feel towards each other is mutual, you just keep neglecting that fact.”

“It’s just so absurd that he chooses me over everyone else.”

“Well, deal with it.”

Kurt chuckled, raising his eyebrows at her. “That’s really your advice?”

Santana nodded, and when Kurt glanced at his stepbrother and his girlfriend – Blaine’s best friend, on the floor, they did too.

“So-“

“You go ask him if he’ll come to yours for the holidays. Now. Go” Santana shooed him away with a wave of her hand.

Kurt shook his head with a chuckle as he made his way out of the common room. 

-

Turns out doing just what Santana had suggested wasn’t as big of a deal as Kurt had made it out to be in his head. Blaine looked about the happiest person on the face of the earth with his megawatt smile once Kurt explained the whole thing to him and questioned if he’d prefer to spend Christmas with him and the rest of the Hummel-Hudsons instead of the minority of the Hogwarts student body. 

The Hufflepuff threw his arms around the boy and squeezed him near to the point of suffocation, but Kurt couldn’t really mind.  
He laughed, burying his face in the crook of Blaine’s neck. “Is that a yes?”

“Yes it is” The boy also laughed, easing his hold on the Slytherin to look him in the eyes. “You don’t know how glad I am that I don’t need to stay here.”

“Why is that?” Kurt was confused. The school was absolutely stunning with all of its magical decorations and dozens of Christmas trees as well as the Great Hall ceiling snowing on them every minute of every day.

The Hufflepuff’s eyes widened. “Do you know how many of the younger Hufflepuffs are going to be staying here? None. Or maybe like two.”

Kurt smiled widely. “And why is that bad?”

“Kurt, you know why. I’ve talked to you about this hundreds of times. It doesn’t feel right, the common room is so lifeless without all the little ones. Why are you even asking?”

“Because I think it’s absolutely adorable.”


End file.
